Vaccinating children (illustrative)
Vaccinating children (illustrative)iStock

Israel's four HMOs announced that starting on Sunday, parents can book appointments for their children aged 5-11 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The rollout is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, following the arrival of the vaccines Saturday morning.

Children must be accompanied by a parent, or by an adult of the parent's choosing who bears a signed letter with the parent's agreement to accompany and vaccinate the child, Israel Hayom reported.

The Clalit health fund, which insures approximately 500,000 children of the relevant ages, said that the vaccine will be available in over 110 locations around Israel. Locations which offer vaccines for adults as well will have separate vaccination booths for children.

Maccabi Health Services, which insures approximately 245,000 children of the relevant ages, opened its appointment books on Sunday morning. While some locations offer appointments from Tuesday, other locations will only begin offering the vaccine on Thursday.

At the beginning, the Meuhedet health fund will offer the vaccines at 60 locations around the country, but by the end of the week, members will be able to choose from 120 locations.

The Leumit health fund is also preparing to vaccinate those children it insures, and will offer the vaccines at 70 locations around Israel. In order to prevent mistakes, there will be separate hours for pediatric and adult coronavirus vaccines.