Tel Aviv: Israel began launching a Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11 years, Monday, became one of a handful of countries to investigate children so young because they tried to ward off other pandemic waves.
During the summer, the Jewish state experienced an increase in Coronavirus infection, driven by a Delta variant, and launched one of the earliest campaigns for Booster Shots.
When infection began to crawl again, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the country experienced a “wave of children” with about half of the cases recently confirmed among children under the age of 11 years, he wrote on Facebook.
The authorities have begun to immunize those aged 12 to 17 years but decide to reduce the threshold of age after trial by Pfizer and recommendations from the Israeli scientist panel.
While the campaign for underage children is set to start officially on Tuesday, the dose has been given on Monday night, the AFP team in Tel Aviv was found.
“At present during the epidemic, the best tool to protect our children is vaccination,” said Heli Nave from outside the clinic that gave Jab Pfizer-Biontech to children.
He said, “This is not an easy decision at all” but the availability of data from the United States – which began to mimunize children aged five to 11 years earlier this month – has convinced him.
The prime minister is scheduled to have his own youngest son vaccinated on Tuesday morning, his office announced.
Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccine against Coronavirus last year thanks to the agreement with Pfizer which gave it access to millions of doses in exchange for data on the efficacy of vaccines.
More than 5.7 million of nine million people in the country are now fully vaccinated.