Israel is currently on track to be the first country in the world to inoculate its entire population. This could provide a gold standard for other countries if Israel begins to see no new resurgence in COVID-19 cases in the coming months, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Katie Wrenn, an epidemiologist at GlobalData, comments: “Israel’s smaller geography, smaller population size, and a large digitalized medical system has given the country an advantage in speed of vaccination. This indicates that regions with less-structured healthcare systems may take much longer to implement such a program.

“Israel has vaccinated the largest proportion of its population thus far, as 1.9 million people have received a first dose of the vaccine, equating to 22.34 doses administered per 100 people. This compares to the US, which has administered 2.82 doses per 100 people.”

Israel entered a third national lockdown on December 27, due to new infections rising rapidly and the recent detection of two new highly contagious strains of the virus.

Wrenn concludes: “These tight restrictions must remain in place until the majority of the population has received two doses of the vaccine to prevent the situation worsening in the meantime. If the public becomes complacent in their individual response to stopping the spread of the virus and depends solely on the vaccine, the current wave may quickly become the largest.”