(INN) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave an optimistic address to the nation Wednesday night on the fight against the coronavirus.
“There is good news on the coronavirus front: The day before yesterday I spoke with Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, and yesterday I spoke with Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks, about signing to increase the number of doses that will be allocated to the citizens of Israel. I believe that we are on the verge of signing. This is excellent news,” Netanyahu said.
“This is in addition to the fact that Pfizer, with which we have already signed for eight million doses, is going to apply for approval with the US medical authorities in a few days, to supply these vaccines. We will be among the first to receive them. This is the beginning of the end of the coronavirus,” he declared.
Pfizer had earlier released updated results showing that its vaccine efficacy had risen from 90% to 95% upon completion of the third phase of the trial.
The company says they will submit a request in the coming days days for emergency approval of the vaccine from the FDA.
The Health Ministry reported that yesterday 819 new verified patients were diagnosed with the coronavirus and results of 56,619 tests were obtained. 308 patients are in serious condition and 125 are on ventilators. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 2,738 patients have died in Israel.
