Israel's Covid R rate has fallen below one among the over-60s just three weeks after booster shots were dished, in the clearest sign yet that the programme is working.
Health Ministry officials say the R rate — which signals how fast the virus is spreading — has dropped below the crucial level, suggesting the outbreak is now shrinking in that age group.
Israel became the first country in the world to start rolling out booster shots to over-60s last month — and more than half have already got their third dose.
The country today expanded the programme to over-30s, after previously making all over-40s, teachers and frontline medics and carers eligible.
Israeli Government adviser and data scientist Professor Eran Segal said infection rates in over-60s are still 'very high' but that the ‘increase in the rate of infections... has diminished'.
'This is likely due to the third booster shots,' he said, 'an uptick in people taking the first dose and the high number of people infected per week who now have natural immunity.'
Britain is under mounting pressure to follow suit because infections, hospitalisation and deaths are all rising as we head into autumn, when school and university students will begin mixing again and more people opt to socialise in doors.
But the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises No10 on the roll out, is only expected to green light third doses for very vulnerable adults and the very elderly, citing a lack of evidence of benefit for re-jabbing healthy adults.
Israel's Covid cases appear to be plateauing almost four weeks after the booster programme began. Health Ministry data showed the country's infection rate was 842 cases per 100,000 people on August 23, down from 844.5 the day before
But Covid deaths in the country are continuing to rise. Deaths lag behind cases by around three weeks
Israeli data suggests booster shots slash the risk of infection among the double-vaccinated four-fold. Pictured above is a woman receiving her third Pfizer vaccine in Israel
Israel's Covid cases may now be falling after surging since June when the Indian 'Delta' variant first arrived in the country.
Health Ministry data showed the country's infection rate nationally was 842 cases per million people on August 23 — the most recent data — compared to 687 per million one week earlier.
Despite rising in the last seven days, cases appear to have peaked at 844 per million on August 22.
However, one day of dropping infection rates is not indicative of a trend and cases could begin to rise again.
But promisingly, the R rate dropped below one among over-60s last Thursday and continued to fall for the rest of the week, according to data from the Health Ministry.
And nationally, the R rate dipped to 1.14 from 1.36 at the start of the month.
This means every 10 infected people will infect around 11 other people, down from 13 to 14 others at the beginning of the month.
But the rate is still above one, suggesting the outbreak was still growing across the country, but lower than previously suggesting the rate of increase had slowed.
Booster jabs were offered to those aged 60 and over first
