Israel to vaccinate high schoolers to slow infections among the young
Israel has began vaccinating high-school students to target a demographic suspected of accelerating its Covid-19 outbreak.
Israel began vaccinating high-school students on Sunday to target a demographic suspected of accelerating the country’s COVID-19 outbreak.
With the capacity to handle about 200,000 people a day, the country’s health authorities are able to vaccinate Israel’s approximately 300,000 16 to 18-year-olds in short order, but the challenge will be to ensure everyone shows up for a shot.
Israel has approved the vaccine for anyone over 16. It won’t inoculate anyone under that age.
Ministry of Health data show that Israel’s younger population is far more likely to test positive for the coronavirus, with 10 to 19-year-olds making up 21 per cent of known infections. The 20 to 29-year-old age group accounts for 19 per cent of known infections.
“They are the megaspreaders,” Ido Hadari, director of government relations at Israel’s Maccabi Healthcare Services said of high school students. “If we vaccinate these guys, they will stop being spreaders.”
Israel is leading the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, so far administering the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to almost 30 per cent of its population since starting late last month. Israel has also received some shipments of the Moderna vaccine, but so far is mainly relying on Pfizer.
Still, health officials say they are racing against time. The fast-spreading British variant of the virus has made its way into the country, while Israelis are bristling under a third lockdown even as the government widens the vaccination campaign. Daily virus cases had reached about 10,000 a day early last week, but on Friday those levels eased to about 7000 new cases.
Three of Israel’s four health maintenance organisations began vaccinating 16 to 18-year-olds on Sunday AEDT, following a recommendation from the Health Ministry.
Health officials signalled two weeks ago they were looking to widen the vaccination campaign — currently open to those under 40 — to the general population in the weeks ahead. Some of Israel’s health maintenance organisations are allowing people over 35 to get vaccinated as well. Anyone is eligible for an extra dose that is left over at the end of the day.
Israel currently has registered 79,942 active cases of the coronavirus, including 1182 serious cases. Since the start of the pandemic last year, 4266 people have died. Israel has administered the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to 2.4 million people and has administered both doses to 899,315 people. As part of its effort to quickly secure enough doses for its population of nine million people, Israel agreed to share medical data about the vaccination drive with Pfizer. Early data from Israel suggests COVID-19 infection rates began to fall among a group of vaccine recipients two weeks after they received the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
Israel will offer what officials are calling a green passport to those who have been vaccinated that will allow them to avoid quarantine after flying and eventually go to public places like cinemas, stadiums and restaurants.
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