The first vaccinations against Covid-19 in Israel were simple. Now comes the hard part.

“I’m healthy, my body knows how to overcome it,” said Tamir Hefetz, 46, one of the organizers of the anti-vaccine demonstration. “The green passport is a terrible thing.”

In the late stages of its vaccination program, Israel is trying to convince holdouts to get vaccinated before new variants of the coronavirus raise infection levels again, further hurting the country’s economy.

But the hardened pockets of resistance facing the Israeli government point to the struggles facing many Western countries, including the US, once they inoculate much of their population.

“The farther you go, the more difficult it gets,” Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in an interview. “It’s like running a marathon.”

With more than 55% of the population having at least one injection – and more than 46% having two – the Israeli vaccination campaign has reached a critical stage. After peaking at more than 230,000 injections per day in mid-January, vaccine rollout has slowed to about 100,000 per day in recent weeks.

Experts warn that if Israel is to achieve a certain level of immunity and detection that will allow it to break repeated cycles of economic openings and lockdowns, that pace must be accelerated.

Gili Regev, director of the epidemiology division at Sheba Medical Center, said Israel will not achieve herd immunity with the UK variant until 80% of the population is vaccinated, which is currently impossible until children under 16 can take the injection. Before that, she said, only vaccinating as many people over the age of 16 as possible will improve the outlook.

“The more people get vaccinated, the safer it is for everyone,” she said.

Dr. Regev estimates that only about 4% of Israelis who are offered a vaccine refuse it, but there are many others who have not bothered to get the injection, despite individual cities setting up mobile vaccination sites and public awareness campaigns. . The Israeli government has also developed a comprehensive incentive system, based on the green passports, that allows vaccinated people to access fitness, dining and entertainment facilities that are usually locked during consecutive lockdowns and are still largely closed to unvaccinated people.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign, Israeli health organizations have attacked anyone eligible with text messages, phone calls and emails to lure them to vaccination sites.

Such calls continue to fall on deaf ears with people like Katy Drabkin from Holon, a city south of Tel Aviv. She recently cycled past a vaccine center in the city and then urged several people in line not to shoot. She does not trust the information from the mainstream media about the vaccines and is annoyed that she is being discriminated against for refusing an injection.

“What’s happening now is that our media belongs to the establishment, which belongs to people with a vested interest,” she said. “So now they are just convincing everyone that there is a dangerous pandemic.”

Shiri, 45, who attended the anti-vaccine rally in Tel Aviv but declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions to her business, also doubts an opportunity is worth it. She brought her husband and three children to hand out the anti-vaccine stickers to passers-by.

“I’m not sure if this is safe or works,” she said, referring to the vaccine.

Israel initially fared well during the first wave of the pandemic, but faced a crippling second wave after a too hasty reopening in the summer that forced a second lockdown. The country shut down again in December after the spread of the more contagious British variant of the virus triggered a third wave that was worst of all. More than 6,000 people have been killed so far from Covid-19, and the shutdown has cost the Israeli economy billions of dollars.

The pro-vaccination campaign has messed up a number of holdouts. Amos Yekutiel of Jerusalem said he had no plans to get vaccinated, but he did after passing a vaccination site set up in a neighborhood cafe. His friends, who warned him that he could not come until he was vaccinated, pushed the 36-year-old consultant in the door.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I just didn’t think I needed it myself,” he said. Now that he has changed his mind, he is excited to go to restaurants and attend a group dinner. “It gives you more freedom.”

To further influence the skeptics, the Israeli Ministry of Health is also targeting misinformation about the vaccines, mainly distributed through social media. Health officials are working with the Israeli Justice Department to remove false information about the vaccines and are also posting information to debunk vaccine myths.

In Jerusalem, two religious students said that even though many of their friends had urged them not to get the vaccine, they eventually went ahead after asking volunteer medics and doctors how it worked and consulting their parents.

[At first] we looked at each other and said ‘of course not’, ”said Yaakov Silverman, 21, who was eating an ice cream when a volunteer found him and his friend and suggested he get a vaccine at a nearby bar. “But we asked a few questions … and we talked about it and said, ‘Why don’t we just do it?’ ”

—Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv contributed to this article.