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Israel starts vaccinating young children as coronavirus cases rise

24 November 2021 00:21 (UTC +04:00)

Israel began rolling out Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds on Monday hoping to beat down a recent rise in coronavirus infections, APA reports quoting Reuters.

A fourth wave of infections that hit Israel in June began subsiding in September. But over the past two weeks the "R", or reproduction rate of the virus, that had remained below one for two months began climbing and has now crossed that threshold, indicating the virus could again be spreading exponentially.

Daily cases have also crept up over the past few days, with half the confirmed infections presently among children age 11 and younger.

The children's vaccine drive kicked off on Monday in a Tel Aviv square, where a small number of parents quietly lined up with their children to get shots. The campaign will go nationwide on Tuesday.