Coronavirus: Israel to get initial Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shipment on Dec. 10

Israel will receive a first shipment of Pfizer coronavirus vaccines on Thursday and will administer them to the elderly and other high-risk populations, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech last month agreed to provide Israel with 8 million doses of the vaccine, which Britain on Tuesday became the first country to administer.

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Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen confirmed media reports that a first batch would be flown to Tel Aviv from Chicago on Thursday.

Those doses would be given to at-risk populations, mainly those over 60-years-old, Cohen said in an interview with Army Radio. He gave no start date for the innoculations or details of the size of the batch.

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Public broadcaster Kan said it would contain 110,000 doses.

Israel, with a population of 9 million, has reported 347,497 coronavirus cases and 2,925 deaths.

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