Israel approves COVID-19 booster for ages 50+
Health care workers, prisoners and people with weak immune system are also eligible to receive a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Israel expanded eligibility for a coronavirus booster shot on Friday, lowering the minimum age requirement to 50 from 60 in order to help curb the rapidly spreading Delta variant.
Israel, which offered the third shot to people with compromised immune systems in June, is now the world’s first country to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots for those over 50. Others eligible for the booster include health care workers, prisoners and wardens. The Times of Israel reports that as of Friday morning, 775,703 people in Israel have received a third dose.
“I really hope that as many people as possible my age, 50 and older, will be vaccinated with the third dose,” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Friday.
“Now is a critical time. This is the most effective tool we have to stop the Delta variant. We are in a very big outbreak and this is a step that everybody can take,” said Horowitz, who received his booster at Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava.
