Small bottles labeled with ‘Vaccine COVID-19’ stickers and a medical syringe are seen in this illustration taken on April 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Dado Ruvic.

Israel will receive a first shipment of Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccines on Thursday and will administer them to the elderly and other high-risk populations, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech last month agreed to provide Israel with 8 million doses of the vaccine, which Britain on Tuesday became the first country to administer.

Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen confirmed media reports that a first batch would be flown to Tel Aviv from Chicago on Thursday.

Those doses would be given to at-risk populations, mainly those over 60-years-old, Cohen said in an interview with Army Radio. He gave no start date for the inoculations or details of the size of the batch.

Public broadcaster Kan said it would contain 110,000 doses.

Israel, with a population of 9 million, has reported 347,497 coronavirus cases and 2,925 deaths.