Preliminary findings of a study conducted by Israeli health authorities show there is no coronavirus variant currently in the country that is resistant to vaccines, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening.
Israel launched its high-paced vaccination drive in December and so far has inoculated over half of the population, allowing the government to reopen large parts of the economy.
According to the report, the research was conducted over the course of a month and was facilitated by the Health Ministry.
As part of the research, DNA samples of individuals who have recovered from or have been vaccinated against coronavirus were collected from all of Israel's hospitals and HMOs. The samples were then taken to the central DNA sequencing lab of the ministry at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv for examination.
If the sequencing would have revealed a specific mutation with high prevalence (which might reflect high incidence or prolonged survival of a disease without cure), it would have indicated the variant was resistant to the vaccine or the antibodies developed by those who recovered from the pathogen.
But according to initial results, the strains found within the samples matched their dispersal among the general population. In other words, there is no current evidence suggesting that a vaccine-resistant mutation exists in the country.
The Health Ministry, however, said it will continue to examine the data to ensure the preliminary results were accurate.
The article was reprinted with permission from i24NEWS