Israelis face losing vaccine passport without Covid boosters

By Trend

Israel will strip more than a million citizens of their vaccine passports on Sunday, becoming the first country to regulate booster shots as evidence of fully immunised status,Trend reports citing Financial Times.

The decision, which has prompted tens of thousands to rush to get a third shot of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine in the past week, is a final push to pull Israel out of its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.

“I believe the fourth wave is coming to an end,” the health ministry’s director general Nachman Ash said in a radio speech, attributing the success to the booster campaign. “We are on our way, but I say this with caution.” Simultaneously, the health ministry released data saying common side effects like fatigue or pain in the arm were all measurably lower after the third jab than after the first or the second.