In a rare outbreak, 23 students from one classroom in a Jerusalem schools have contracted coronavirus, health officials said Wednesday.
Teddy Kollek High School in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of the capital reported that overall 25 students tested positive for COVID recently, of whom 23 appear to be classmates.
The infected students were ordered into self-isolation, while those who came in contact with carriers had undergone coronavirus tests, all of which returned negative. They too were asked to quarantine at home.
In addition, the northern town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur also recorded an outbreak in the education system earlier this week. On Sunday, health officials said 13 classrooms across the city's schools and three kindergartens were closed and all students and staffed placed in quarantine after dozens of new infections have been detected in the town.
As of Wednesday, there are 46 active COVID-19 patients in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, the majority of whom are students. The town's traffic light score, which measures the overall status of infection, is the highest in the whole country, with 6.8. For comparison, in Tel Aviv the traffic light score is currently at 1.2.
According to the Health Ministry, only 58% of Pardes Hanna-Karkur residents have been inoculated with at least one vaccine shot.
Attorney Bar Kochva, member of the Pardes Hanna-Karkur city council, told Ynet there is a group of local residents, mainly aged 20-40, who refuse to get vaccinated and contribute to the town's high infection rate.