Israel Orders Thousands of Pfizer’s Oral COVID Treatment After Granting Emergency Use Approval

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish traveler waits in queue with other travellers with luggage at the check-in counter ahead of their departing flights at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, east of Tel Aviv, on Dec. 21, 2021. Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s Health Ministry on Sunday granted emergency approval to an anti-viral oral COVID-19 medication developed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Officials ordered roughly 100,000 doses of the pills in an effort to help combat a new coronavirus wave brought about by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.