TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Israel urges adolescents to get vaccinated, citing Delta variant
Israel expanded vaccine eligibility to include adolescents last month. Infections have fallen off sharply in recent weeks. Vaccination turnout has largely flatlined at around 55 percent of the 9.3 million overall population having received both shots, implying that adults have largely stopped getting vaccinated.
Change Size
Israelis queue in front of the Clalit Health Services installed at the Pais Arena Sport Hall in Jerusalem, to receive the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine, on January 21, 2021. (Agence France Presse/Emmanuel Dunand)
A
n Israeli health official on Monday urged more 12- to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated against COVID-19, citing new outbreaks that he attributed to the more infectious Delta variant.
Israel expanded vaccine eligibility to include adolescents last month. Infections have fallen off sharply in recent weeks. Vaccination turnout has largely flatlined at around 55 percent of the 9.3 million overall population having received both shots, implying that adults have largely stopped getting vaccinated.
But COVID-19 recurrences were logged at two schools last week, contributing to a rise in the daily test positivity rate from a rolling one-month average of 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on Saturday and 0.6 percent on Monday, Health Ministry data showed.
The ministry will probably issue a recommendation that 12- to 15-year-olds get vaccinated, having previously left the matter up to the parents' preference, said Nachman Ash, the national pandemic response coordinator.
"I think that would certainly be correct at this stage, when we see an outbreak of the Delta variant in the country," he told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM.
"We should not wait for higher numbers. We have seen there were quite a few children infected over the last week."
Separately, Israeli officials said they were considering the imposition of fines for parents whose unvaccinated children do not self-isolate upon coming into the country from abroad, as required.
Read also: Delta variant behind Indonesia’s recent COVID-19 surge, officials say
