Coronavirus: Israel leads vaccine race with 12% given jab

  • 2021-01-02 18:35:33
Israel has given vaccinations against coronavirus to more than one million people, the highest rate in the world, as global immunisation efforts step up. Israel has a rate of 11.55 vaccination doses per 100 people, followed by Bahrain at 3.49 and the UK at 1.47, according to a global tracking website affiliated with Oxford University. In comparison, France had vaccinated 138 people in total by 30 December. More than 1.8m people have now died of the virus around the world. The comparative figures on vaccination are put together by Our World in Data, which is a collaboration between Oxford University and an educational charity. They measure the number of people who have received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Most of the vaccines approved for use so far rely on two doses, given more than a week apart. The US fell far short of its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, with just 2.78 million having received a jab by 30 December. Meanwhile, the US government's top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has said he does not agree with UK plans to give as many people as possible a first vaccine dose, while delaying second doses. Dr Fauci said the US would not be adopting a similar strategy. India has meanwhile approved two vaccines for emergency use - the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Covaxin vaccine, developed locally by Bharat Biotech and the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research. Two further vaccines are awaiting approval. The country aims to vaccinate 300 million people by the middle of the year and has been staging drills to prepare for mass distribution.

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