Following the positive data from the booster shot campaign and the approval of a third vaccine for those aged 40 and over, the Ministry of Health is expected to allow vaccination for all age groups, over the age of 12, within one to two weeks, Kan 11 News reported on Friday.
Health Ministry Director General Professor Nachman Ash on Thursday night accepted a recommendation by the advisory staff for coronavirus issues that Israelis over age 40 be vaccinated with a booster dose.
The Ministry of Health now wants the next step to be allowing everyone who is five months past the second dose of the vaccine to receive the third dose, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Coronavirus Project Manager Prof. Salman Zarka told Kan 11 News on Friday that there is no way to prevent the new Lambda variant of the virus, which is now infecting many in the Americas, from entering Israel.
However, Zarka said that what is important is "to do everything to reduce and delay its arrival". He added that the fear was that the Lambda variant is more contagious and even more deadly, and that there is a fear that this time the illness would also affect children.
On the issue of the start of the school year, Zarka said that "we all want the school year to open on time." He added that the Ministry of Health is doing everything it can to ensure that the school year opens on September 1, but if the number of cases is on the rise by then, "we may have to make other decisions.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)