Israel accelerates vaccination to tackle COVID wave in children

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet will lead the way for a new vaccine drive amongst children in the country by getting his own youngest son vaccinated against Covid-19 on Tuesday. The move comes in the wake of the Prime Minister's comments on a resurgent wave of Covid-19 in the country that has seen children represent half of the newly infected.

Israel is now rolling out vaccinations for children aged 5-11 years old after recommendations from the Pfizer-BioNTech company which manufactures coronavirus vaccines and a panel of Israeli scientists. In his Facebook post on the issue, Prime Minister Bennet remarked that the nation was seeing a "children's wave" and that 49% of new cases were children aged 0-11.

"I know there is some sensitivity around this matter. There are a lot of people who feel reluctant to vaccinate their children, and they are not necessarily "anti-vaccination" or those who buy delusional conspiracy theories. My answer to these concerns: total transparency. We will provide all the certified scientific information to you, the parents - and you will take a decision," Bennet wrote.

"This vaccine will save a lot of unnecessary isolation, but there's also an important health issue here - the effects of what's called "LONG COVID" could persist in children who have been sick, for years," he added.

Israel was one of the first countries to introduce booster vaccination shots for the population and one of the first countries to actually begin inoculation following a deal with Pfizer to provide vaccine data. 5.7 million people out of the country of nine million have been fully vaccinated leading Israel to roll back mask and social distancing mandates months earlier. However, the new wave of Covid-19 propelled by the Delta variant has begun creeping in again, forcing the government to lower age mandates for vaccines.