Tel Aviv, Jul 12 (IANS): Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday his country has signed a deal with Pfizer to receive a new batch of Covid-19 vaccines in August.

In a statement at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Bennett said that "last night we closed a deal to bring forward the next shipment of vaccines to August 1", reports Xinhua news agency.

He said that together with existing vaccine stocks, the new batch will ensure "from this moment, a continuous inventory of vaccines in Israel".

Bennett said that in June, over 200,000 people were vaccinated, including many teenagers.

Israel is trying to halt a new outbreak of the Delta variant and launched a campaign calling teens over 12 years old to get vaccinated.

The Health Ministry has reported a steady rise in the number of infections.

Most cases have been mild or asymptomatic.

On July 10, 261 new cases were diagnosed.

Till date, there has been 846,134 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 6,438 deaths.

About 61 per cent of the country's 9.3 million citizens have been vaccinated with at least one dose, and about 55 per cent with two doses.

Most of them have received the Pfizer vaccine.