The Israeli military on Thursday announced it has become the first army in the world to achieve “herd immunity” as the result of an aggressive coronavirus vaccination campaign.
“After 10 weeks, I can declare that the IDF is the first military in the world to reach herd immunity,” Maj. Gen. Itzik Turgeman, the head of the military’s Technology and Logistics Directorate, told reporters according to a translation by The Times of Israel.
Around 81 percent of troops had either received both doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine or else had contracted the virus in the past, Turgeman said, adding added.
The IDF’s Chief Medical Officer, Brig. Gen. Dr. Alon Glasberg, said the herd immunity would mean the IDF would begin resuming operations that were put on hold, like certain training drills, but compliance with the Health Ministry’s guidelines including masks and social-distancing would still apply.
“We can now do things differently. We can train much more freely,” Glasberg said. “Things look a lot more like they did a year ago.”
“We have a lot to be proud of,” he added.
Over the past month, the number of soldiers diagnosed with COVID-19 dropped from 3,200 to 370.
Israel’s mandatory conscription is at the age of 18.
Meanwhile, Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy has said the country will begin vaccinating children 12 and up “around May-June,” pending clinical trials by vaccine manufacturers.
He added that masks would be here to stay for the meantime.
“Even vaccinated individuals can be a source of coronavirus that will pass to those around him if they are maskless or unvaccinated, and certainly our children up to 16 who are not vaccinated,” Levy said.