The Latest: Israel sees high demand for 3rd vaccine shots

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says people are rushing to get a third vaccine shot as protection from the surging delta variant of the coronavirus.

Bennett pointed to government statistics Sunday showing that more than 420,000 Israelis older than 60 have received a booster shot, more than a third of the total targeted population. Bennett said the number is expected to grow to half a million people by the end of the day.

The prime minister spoke after a weekly Cabinet meeting. Israel is seeing a rising number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, almost all of them infected with the highly contagious delta variant. The government has reinstituted its mask mandate for indoor settings and is weighing more restrictions.

Israel became a world leader in vaccinating against the virus during its initial public campaign, About 5.4 million of the country's 9.3 million people have received two vaccine doses.

The World Health Organization in recent days called for a moratorium on administering booster shots to help preserve supplies so people in poorer countries can get their first doses.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— To shake hands or not? An age-old human gesture now in limbo

— Once lagging, Europe catches up to the US in vaccinations

— Iran reports most daily virus cases, death, of pandemic

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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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