The Health Ministry is scheduled to convene Sunday evening to deliberate on whether to vaccinate children under the age of 12 against coronavirus, Ynet has learned.
The discussion will rely on ongoing clinical trials performed by Pfizer Inc on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine among children aged six months to 12 years and for the time being, will only focus on children in risk groups or those residing with family members with immunosuppression.
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A child being vaccinated against coronavirus at a clinic in Netanya
(Photo: Ido Erez)
The ministry's Management Team of Epidemics had briefly discussed the issue in the past but rejected it outright.
In March, Pfizer announced that it expects the vaccine to be approved for children under 12 by early 2022.
Meanwhile, the ministry reported Sunday that over 770 Israelis have tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend.
With over 117,000 tests conducted during that time period, the country's infection rate stood at 0.5%.
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Health worker carries out coronavirus test on a child at a dedicated testing facility at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square
(Photo: Reuters)
According to the latest data, out of at least 4,108 active patients, 43 were hospitalized in serious condition and 13 of them were connected to ventilators.
Since the pandemic first arrived in the country early last year, 6,435 Israelis have succumbed to the pathogen, four of them in July alone and the latest of them being a 75-year-old woman from Hadera who passed away on Saturday. The northern city's Hillel Yaffe Medical Center where she was hospitalized reported that although the patient had received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine, she suffered from considerable underlying conditions.
As of Sunday, the ministry has designated five localities across the country as coronavirus hotspots due to their relatively high infection rates. Those localities being Kfar Yona, Shaarei Tikva, Ma'ale Adumim, Zofim and Yehud.
The ongoing uptick in coronavirus morbidity coincided with a last-ditch push by Israel to vaccinate as many adolescents aged 12–15 as the country's stock of Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccines near its expiration date.
Saturday was the last deadline for Israelis to receive their first of two required shots. Those wishing to get inoculated against COVID-19 will have to until vaccine supplies are replenished.
Youths have been the group most affected by the recent surge of infections driven by coronavirus' highly transmissible Delta variant originally discovered in India.
Israel fell short of reaching its goal of administering 30,000 vaccinations per day set by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, with the highest vaccination turnout in past months recorded last Tuesday when 17,669 Israelis received their first jab.
According to Health Ministry data published on Friday, 29% of Israelis aged 12–15 had been vaccinated and 11% recovered from the pathogen.
Bennett has reportedly spoken to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla several times since coming to power last month in hopes of replenishing Israel's vaccine stockpile posthaste.
Alongside its efforts to strike a new agreement with the U.S. pharmaceutical giant, Jerusalem has also signed a vaccine swap deal with South Korea last week that will see Israel shipping out 700,000 vaccine doses to the East Asian country in exchange for a future shipment of the jabs in September and October.