The deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Jarbas Barbosa, estimated on Thursday that Israel will be the first country in the world to achieve herd immunity against the covid-19 coronavirus.

During a talk with users of social networks, the expert highlighted that the collective protection offered by vaccines, also called herd immunity, is achieved when a percentage of the vaccinated population capable of protecting even those who were not vaccinated is reached, which varies according to the disease.

“For the covid it is believed that we will have to reach at least 70% of the vaccinated population to think about controlling transmission. Other models speak of up to 90%” Barbosa pointed out.

“We will have to see what happens in real life. I think Israel is going to be the first country to reach 70% and we are going to look at what happens in Israel”, he added.

Israel, of about nine million people, vaccinated more than four million people, or 45% of the population, since December, the highest vaccination rate in the world.

In what has been considered the fastest per capita immunization campaign in the world, 2.6 million people have already received even the second dose, according to official figures.

The country aims to vaccinate all people over the age of 16 by the end of March.

Up to now, Israel has applied only the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, although it has a small reserve of the drug developed by the American biotechnology firm Moderna.

Israel secured a good supply of vaccines from Pfizer after reaching a data exchange agreement with the US manufacturer.

The agreement stipulates that Israel, which has one of the world’s most sophisticated medical data systems, will share real-time information with Pfizer on the impact of the vaccine, including progress towards herd immunity.

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