Israel’s health regulators announced that they will be shortening the required gap between the initial doses of COVID vaccines and the booster doses. The gap has been reduced to three months from its earlier slab, five months.

The Health Ministry of Israel said in a statement on Monday that the gap between the vaccine dosage was reduced as a strategy against the omicron variant of COVID– which was first detected in South Africa– and to boost immunity amongst those living in the country.

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The new rule would apply to COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

There was still no decision on whether to roll out a second tranche of booster shots to its population as the country grappled with rising infections.

Israel began trials of the fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine on Monday in what is believed to be the first study of its kind.

The Israeli hospital injected the vaccine into a test group of health workers on Monday. The whole world is likely to be closely watching the first of its kind study, the results of which will be submitted to Israel’s Health Ministry in about two weeks in the next two weeks, according to reports from Reuters.

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Results of the trial, likely to be closely watched internationally, will be submitted to Israel’s Health Ministry in about two weeks, said a spokesperson for Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv.

The ministry said, switching from delta to omicron would provide only 25% protection against infection in a month for people aged 60 and up, compared to 75% currently. Officials released a presentation earlier this week to support their decision to give people in that age bracket, as well as medical workers, a fourth shot.  

On Tuesday last week, an Israeli hospital confirmed the first death related to the omicron variant of COVID, but noted he had a variety of serious pre-existing problems.

(With AP inputs)