Israel on Monday launched a double-booster, the fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose, for people over the age of 60 and medical workers.
The rollout expands the country's limited double-booster effort that was launched last week amid compromised immune systems for older residents and an Omicron surge for some healthcare workers.
"Omicron is not Delta," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. "It's a different ballgame altogether."
Bennett also announced the approval of a fourth dose to more than 60 Israelis and medical workers who received their booster shots at least four months ago at a news conference on Sunday.
“We have been the first [with] booster shots in the world, and that policy has well protected the citizens of Israel,” he said.
Bennett said Israel's death rate from COVID-19 is 50 times lower than that of Britain, 100 times lower than that of Germany and 130 times lower than that of the United States.
Still, Israel has more than 5,000 new cases a day amid the Omicron surge, Bennett said, with possibly 20,000 new daily cases by the end of the week, and 50,000 daily cases at the peak of the wave.
He said the vaccine is the only effective way to counter the Omicron boom, urging Israelis to wear masks in crowded places, especially indoors, and for the elderly to avoid crowds altogether.
Since the pandemic began, Israel has reported more than 1.4 million cases and more than 8,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's global tracker.
According to Bloomberg's COVID, Israel led the world in initial vaccination rates, but currently lags behind several other countries in the rate of full immunization, along with Gibraltar, Maldives, Portugal, Malta and the Cayman Islands. -19 Vaccine Tracker.
The same vaccine tracker shows that 65.5% of Israel's population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 47.1% have received a booster dose.