An Israeli government advisory panel has recommended offering a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose to all adults, on condition that at least five months have passed since they received the third or recovered from the illness, the health ministry says.

Implementation of the measure, which would significantly expand eligibility now limited to the over-60s and other high-risk groups, is subject to approval by the ministry’s director-general.

It was not immediately clear when that might happen.

The ministry’s statement on Tuesday said the recommendation was made given findings that those who received a fourth shot were three to five times as protected against serious illness and twice as protected against infection, compared with the thrice-vaccinated.

Despite the claims by the health ministry, COVID-19 cases remain high in Israel with 436,028 infections in the seven-day figure released last week. The number broke the seven-day global record for daily cases per capita. Australia, with a high vaccination rate along with mask and vaccine mandates wasn’t far behind.

A top Israeli immunologist Cyrille Cohen recently stated that vaccine passports should be phased out in the Omicron era.

“Especially with Omicron, where we don’t see virtually any difference, there is a very narrow gap between people vaccinated and non-vaccinated, both can get infected with a virus, more or less at the same pace,” Cohen told Unherd. 

“You have also to understand that the Green Pass is not necessarily — and that’s not a secret — it’s not necessarily to prevent transmission. It’s also to encourage people to get vaccinated. And I don’t want to touch upon the political aspects of the green pass. But this is a reality.”

With AAP

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