Israel's PM Bennett receives COVID-19 booster shot as infections surge

Israeli Prime Minister NaftaliBennettreceived a coronavirus vaccineboostershoton Friday, as the country began administering them to people aged 40 and over amid a spike ininfections.

At a public hospital in Kfar Saba, a central city nearBennett's home, the 49-year-old Israeli premier kept his eyes on the nurse administering theshotto his left shoulder, with his office saying he was the first head of government in the world to receive abooster.

"We're at the height of the battle now, together we can win; it's within arm's reach, but we're not there yet,"Bennettsaid shortly before receiving theshot.

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"I'm asking of you, use this unique privilege you have as Israelis, and go get vaccinated."

InfectionsinIsraelhave in recent weeks surged, raising fears of a lockdown over the Jewish High Holidays, which will take place in September.

"If you go get the thirdshot, we can avoid a fourth lockdown,"Bennettsaid. "We're seeing profound efficacy of the vaccines working, it's safe and it's the way to defeat this virus.

The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium onCOVID-19vaccineboostershots to help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations.

On Wednesday, WHO's emergency director Mike Ryan said thatboostershots were like "planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket."

On Friday,Bennettreiterated his defence ofIsrael's "pioneering"boosterpractice, stressing again that his country would provide the world valuable data.

"We fromIsraelare going to share all the data, all the information all the insights in this pioneering" scheme, he said.

"I'm happy to hear that other countries are following suit, because at the end of the day, this is a global war onCovidand we've got to win."

Israelwas one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December via an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness.

The inoculation campaign was hailed as a success story that helped drastically reduceinfectionsin the country of nine million.

But cases have been rising due to the spread of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated and waning immunity in others.

To try and contain the spread, authorities last week began administering aboostershotto those aged 50 and older, after starting a campaign for over-60s late last month.

Israelhas recorded more than 970,000 coronavirusinfectionssince the pandemic started early last year, and over 6,700 deaths.

More than 5.4 million people have received two doses of the vaccine, while 1.2 million have had a third jab.