Israel launched a coronavirus vaccination campaign for children ages five to 11 on Tuesday.
The country recently emerged from a fourth wave of COVID and new infections have been relatively rare in recent weeks. But statistics from the Ministry of Health reveal that a high proportion of the new infections are children and adolescents.
Children between the ages of 5 and 11 make up almost half of active cases. Officials hope the vaccination campaign will help reduce those numbers and perhaps prevent a new wave.
The Israeli press reported that there was a low demand for the injections on the first day they were available to this sector. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accompanied his 9-year-old son David as a way to encourage parents to vaccinate their children.
Bennett held her son’s hand as he received the injection. David Bennet said he was a little scared, but it didn’t hurt. The prime minister said that the vaccine “protects children and also their parents.”
Israel, with more than 9 million inhabitants, has registered 1.3 million cases and 8,100 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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