Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first person in his country to be given Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Netanyahu made the announcement Wednesday in front of a just-landed aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, which had been carrying the first batches of the vaccine to arrive in the Jewish state.
The 71-year-old prime minister explained that he had decided to get the shot early to encourage others to not fear the immunization.
“I believe in this vaccine, I expect it to get the requisite approvals in the coming days. I want the citizens of Israel to be vaccinated, and in order to do that, I want to serve as an example to them, and I plan to be the first inoculated with the vaccine in Israel,” Netanyahu remarked.
Pfizer and BioNTech have applied for an emergency use authorization for their vaccine in the US, which was approved for use in the UK on Wednesday.
The vaccine-makers agreed last month to provide Israel with eight million doses of its inoculation, which the country plans to begin administering on Dec. 20, according to vaccine distributor Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
The shipment received Wednesday was delivered from Brussels and contained over 100,000 doses, but the country expects upwards of four million doses by the end of December.
Israel has also ordered vaccines from Moderna and AstraZeneca.
With Post wires
