Israel continues to march ahead in vaccination drive as over 50% of population inoculated

Israel's health ministry said on Thursday that over 50 per cent of its population of 9.2 million have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine, a milestone that has continued to put the country much ahead of other nations in the vaccination drive. 

The country's stellar fight to curb Covid-19 has also been rewarded in this week's general election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party won the most seats, but failed to get a majority. 

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Health Minister Yuli Edelstein in a statement announced the milestone and a continuous drop in new cases and asked people "to follow (health) guidelines so that the coronavirus does not return".

Israel, which faced three lockdowns, has a Covid-19 death toll of 6,157 and the positivity rate on Thursday stood at 1.1 per cent, a drop of about 6 per cent a month ago. 

As many as 482 patients were in serious condition as of Thursday compared to more than 800 in late February. 

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Israel has faced a lot of international criticism for not sharing enough of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine to Palestine, for which the Jewish country claims that Palestinians are responsible for such health measures. 

Over 100,000 Palestinian workers with permits to enter Israel or Jewish areas in the West Bank have been inoculated by Israel.