Vaccinating children (illustrative)
Vaccinating children (illustrative)Miriam Alster, Flash90

On Wednesday morning, Prof. Nachman Ash, the Director General of the Health Ministry, signed an order permitting coronavirus vaccination to take place during school hours, as long as the procedure is authorized in writing by a child’s parents.

As such, vaccinations will be administered in schools from Thursday. Since only haredi schools have resumed studies following the summer break (beginning on the first of the Jewish month of Elul), the program will begin there.

Deputy Attorney General Ran Nezri, who composed the wording of the order along with the Attorney General, Dr. Avichai Mandelblit, told Galei Tzahal that the order would enable the Health Ministry Director General to order medical teams to enter schools, even during class hours, regardless of the opinion of the Education Minister on the matter.

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton (New Hope) has been extremely critical of the notion of vaccinating children at school, going so far as to call it “criminal” even though she denies being opposed to vaccination in general.

The order permitting vaccinations during school hours was prepared partly at the behest of Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), who sought a way to bypass Shasha-Biton’s opposition. In the opinion of officials at the Justice Ministry, Shasha-Biton lacks the necessary authority to prevent students from being vaccinated in school if their parents consent to the procedure.