Experts have advised the Israeli government to begin offering a fourth vaccine dose to everyone over the age of 18, claiming the extra dose helps prevent further Covid-19 infection and severe illness.
The advisory committee said research shows a fourth dose provides three to five times the level of protection against serious disease and double the protection against infection compared to three doses.
The health ministry’s director must approve the recommendation.
Israel is already offering a second booster to everyone over the age of 60 and those at high risk as it struggles to contain a wave of infections fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. It began offering third doses to the general population last summer.
Figures from Israel’s Health Ministry show there are currently some 580,000 active patients, with just 845 listed as seriously ill.
Nearly half the population has received a third dose and more than 600,000 have had a fourth.
Israel has reported 8,487 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The country has gathered extensive data that is informing other countries’ responses to the pandemic.
The recommendation follows the preliminary results of a separate trial of more than 270 medical staff in the country finding the fourth shot only raised antibodies 'a little' compared to those who were triple-vaccinated.
Participants given four doses were only 'a bit less' likely to test positive for the mutant strain than those who had received three with findings true for both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Research from the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where the trial was undertaken, said those who became infected had very mild symptoms or none at all.
Israel was the first country in the world to roll out boosters last year and started dishing out fourth jabs last month to combat Omicron.
But studies have since shown that three jabs are holding up well against serious illness, offering about 88 per cent protection from hospitalisation, even if Omicron can slip past the immune system and cause an infection more easily.
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