TEL AVIV – Israel will begin vaccinating high school students to target a population suspected of accelerating the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
With the capacity to handle around 200,000 people a day, the country’s health authorities can vaccinate approximately 300,000 Israeli youth between the ages of 16 and 18 in a short period of time, but the challenge will be to make sure everyone gets shot. . Israel has approved the vaccine for all over-16s. It will not inoculate anyone under this age.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that the younger population of Israel is much more likely to test positive for coronavirus, as young people aged 10 to 19 account for 21% of known infections. The 20-29 age group accounts for 19% of known infections.
“They are the megaspreaders,” Ido Hadari, director of government relations at Israel’s Maccabi Healthcare Services, said of high school students. “If we vaccinate these guys they will stop being scatterbrained.”
Israel leads the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, so far administering the first dose of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine. to almost 30% of its population since it began in late December. Israel has also received some shipments from the Modern Vaccine Inc., but so far relies primarily on Pfizer.