Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett receives a third shot of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as Israel launches booster shots for over 40 year-olds in Kfar Saba, Israel August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 News – Upward of 3,000,000 Israelis have received the third shot of the coronavirus vaccine, Israel’s Health Ministry announced on Friday.

Israel, a world leader in vaccination, was the first country to recommend Covid-19 booster doses in July and several European nations have since followed suit, targeting high-risk groups.

Despite a swift and effective vaccination rollout in early 2021, Israel in recent months has been struggling to contain the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

However, a new Israeli study published in the The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday said that a Pfizer booster shot lowers the likelihood of developing a serious coronavirus case by almost 20 times.

Over 6,000,000 Israelis, the vast majority of the Jewish state’s population, have received at least one vaccine jab.