Off to school
Off to schoolFlash 90

The Education Ministry today published education system morbidity data, showing that the proportion of coronavirus carriers in the education system is four times lower than their proportion in the general population. This is similar to the morbidity data of schools during summer vacation.

The situation assessment also shows that less than 1% of educational institutions in the country were closed due to discovery of morbidity. This represents the entire population of students in Israel and it must be assumed that most of them were not infected at all in schools and kindergartens.

According to the data collected and analyzed by the Education Ministry since the beginning of the 2020/21 school year, the proportion of carriers in the education system of the total population is only 6.5%. For comparison, their relative distribution among the general population is 26.28%. The data includes morbidity data of students who became carriers during the summer vacation.

In addition, the Education Ministry published a picture of closed educational institutions, which were closed mainly because of administrative decision ("red cities"), and not on the basis of having discovered more carriers. Less than 1% of educational institutions have been closed due to morbidity since the start of the school year.

Also included is morbidity data of children who participated in schools during summer break (July 1st, 2020 - August 6th, 2020), which show that among the children in kindergartens to fourth grades, out of 718,456 children, only 1,006 were infected - which is 1.85% of all patients in the country . In all, 1,006 coronavirus patients in the country are those who were infected during summer vacation, less than a quarter of their relative share of the population.

A review of evidence from around the world has found that no child is known to have passed COVID-19 on to an adult. In the global study, performed in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), researchers looked at 78 studies from around the world.

The review, quoted by Sky News, found it is likely children "do not play a significant role" in transmitting coronavirus and are significantly less likely to become infected than adults.

It also found there has not been a single case of a child under 10 transmitting COVID-19, even through contact tracing carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO).