The chairman of the legislative committee, MK Yaakov Asher (United Torah Judaism) submitted a proposal regarding returning to school to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein according to which the educational institutions should be opened based on an area's traffic light’ rating. Children in green and yellow cities will return fully but gradually, to campuses, while in the orange and red cities only vaccinated children will be allowed.
According to the proposal, "vaccinated" refers to students who became infected with corona and recovered or those who underwent serological testing and were found to carry antibodies as well as students who received the vaccine against COVID-19. The proposal extends the vaccination campaign to 18-20-year-olds in their thirteenth or fourteenth year.
Asher also proposed setting up check-in stations at the entrances to educational institutions, in order to give equal opportunity to unvaccinated students as well - unvaccinated students who display no symptoms would be allowed to attend for up to five days. “This proposal allows us to return nearly sixty percent of the education system with no additional infrastructure or excessive costs," Asher concluded.
Last week, Channel 13 reported that according to data presented to the Ministry of Health, a total of about 75,000 children are positive for the virus, compared to about 58,000 children from the first wave.
According to the data, the British strain is 1.5 times more contagious than usual and is also more pathogenic - meaning it causes more disease symptoms and is indeed seen more frequently in children. In the second wave, for example, 7% of the children were hospitalized in a moderate condition and 0.8 in critical condition. Today the number has risen to 10.1% in moderate condition and 2.1% in critical condition.
According to the sectoral distribution, 41% of those verified in the Haredi sector are children, as are 21% of those verified in the Arab sector and 25% of the mainstream sector. It should be noted that these may be children who have other diseases and are hospitalized anyway, and have recently been found to be positive for COVID-19.
Children appear to be a very significant source of infection. The Ministry of Health now fears that opening the education system without a capsulated format could lead Israel to another wave of illness - even faster than originally estimated.