Starting next Thursday, the isolation guidelines for children will be changed and the amount of tests performed will be greatly increased, it was decided in consultations led by Prime Minister Bennett between the Health and Education Ministries.
Channel 12 News reported that while the Health Ministry wanted to delay the implementation of the new guidelines by ten days, Education Minister Yifat Sasha -Biton demanded they be implemented as soon as possible, and a compromise was reached to implement them in a week's time.
Under the new guidelines, children under the age of 18 who have been exposed to a coronavirus carrier will not be automatically required to quarantine. Children who are symptomatic will still have to quarantine.
Students will be required to take coronavirus tests every Sunday and Wednesday and those who test positive will go into quarantine.The Health Ministry sought to impose a requirement of three or four tests during the week after exposure, but, this measure was opposed by Minister Sasha-Biton.
On Sunday, the Health Ministry's Epidemic Response Team is expected to convene to discuss the issue of the fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccines, which is currently only available for people aged 60 and up.