Israel has signed an agreement with Pfizer and Moderna to purchase million of vaccine doses

Israel has signed an agreement with Pfizer to purchase 10 million vaccine doses by the end of 2022 - of which about two million vaccines have already been sent to Israel, "at the expense" of the deal signed today.
In addition, Israel and Pfizer have agreed on the existence of an option to purchase millions of other vaccine doses, which will be adapted to variants, if necessary.
The deal signed today with Pfizer and the one that will soon be signed with Moderna, includes a 50% lower number of vaccines compared to the original deal presented by the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister. The cost of the deal is much lower, about NIS 1.7 billion, and it is not necessary to open a dedicated budget box for the purchase of vaccines. The financing of the transaction will be from existing budget surpluses.
Israel has also signed a nine-million-dose vaccine-free vaccine agreement with a moderna company by the end of 2022. This is after the state signed a similar agreement with Pfizer earlier today. A total of 18 million vaccine doses were purchased in the amount remaining in the budget surplus, and do not require government approval.
The vaccines purchased should be used to vaccinate the children as soon as their vaccination is approved, as well as for the one million adults who have not yet been vaccinated. In addition, they should be used for the "booster" dose (reinforcement) if one is required once per period.
The signing of the agreement was preceded by a long and difficult struggle within the government between Blue and White and the Likud, as well as between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, over the original vaccination deal presented by the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister - which cost NIS 3.5 billion for 36 million vaccines.
In blue and white they refused to convene the government and approve a new budget box for the deal, and conditioned this on the appointment of a permanent justice minister. In addition, the party raised questions about the deal itself and the need to open a new budget box for it. The Treasury opposed the scope of the original deal, arguing that it was an excessive and overpriced amount of vaccines that was disproportionate to real needs and based on overly stringent discounts.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today in response to the agreement with Pfizer that "there were some obstacles in Israel that we had to overcome, and we found a way to overcome them. If there are no surprises in the form of variant Corona that the vaccines do not overcome." Netanyahu added that "this means that very soon we will have more than enough vaccines, both for adults and children. Israel will once again lead the world in the fight against the corona. There will be no more closures - we got out of it."