Israelis 30 and up will now be eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot against the coronavirus, Israel’s Health Ministry announced Tuesday.

Effective immediately, the Ministry has lowered the age limit for receipt of the third dose of the COVID vaccine to 30.

As with other age groups, Israelis in their 30s looking to receive the booster shot will be able to make an appointment for the jab via their health insurance agency (Kupat Holim).

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the Health Ministry said that the decision was reached based on the recommendations of the Ministry’s COVID vaccine advisory committee, the broader advisory panel for combating the coronavirus, as well as recommendations by members of a committee tapped to track the efficacy and safety of the vaccine program.

Nearly 10,000 new “cases” of the virus were reported across Israel Tuesday, the largest number in a single day since January.

That has pushed Israel’s official COVID count of reported cases above the one million mark.

The percentage of tests coming back positive rose from 6.31% Sunday to 6.63% Monday, after plateauing for five days straight last week.

Despite the rise in the number of “cases”, however the number of hospitalizations actually fell, declining from 1,142 hospitalized COVID patients on Monday to 1,124 Tuesday.

The number of seriously ill patients also fell Tuesday, declining from 679 Monday to 678 Tuesday. Of those, 168 patients are in critical condition, with 123 on respirators. The number of patients in critical condition rose from 162 from Monday, while the number on respirators went up from 108 on Monday.

Source: Arutz Sheva