Nathan Jeffay is The Times of Israel's health and science correspondent A worker at an israeli logistics center where coronavirus vaccines are stored and distributed, on January 7, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90) A new study shows that Israel’s vaccination program saved many lives by reaching the elderly in the nick of time, stopping the British coronavirus variant in its tracks as it started to spread among the over-60 population. The extra-infectious variant has proven 45 percent more transmissible than the regular coronavirus in Israel, researchers at Tel Aviv University concluded. The strain has amazed doctors by spreading so quickly that two months after first arriving in Israel, it has come to account for 95% of coronavirus cases.