Coronavirus – Israel: Vaccination of children aged 5-11 years has started

Israel has launched a vaccination campaign against Covid-19 for children aged five to 11 and has become one of the first countries in the world, after the United States, to lower the age of access to a vaccine to suppress the pandemic.

The Israeli government had planned to launch a vaccination campaign today in hopes of preventing a possible fifth wave of infections, but doses have already been given to younger children since last night, according to an AFP team at a Tel Aviv clinic.

“My husband and I are really excited to be here to start vaccinating children ages 5-11,” said Katie Bar Salom, a 47-year-old mother, as health workers administered Pfizer vaccine doses to children, some of which he feared the needle.

“We know we need to get vaccinated in order to get back to normal,” Bar-Salom said, adding that she wanted to avoid further quarantine and minimize the risk of transmission to the school, which has been plagued by infections in recent days in Israel. however it emerged from the fourth wave of infections.

“It is normal to hesitate (to vaccinate our child), it is not an easy decision (…) but after seeing the data and reading the information about the millions of children vaccinated in the United States we decided to vaccinate our children” says Helly Nave, another mother, at the same clinic.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett today accompanied his nine-year-old son, David, to be vaccinated in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, and called on Israeli parents to do the same.

“Vaccinating children protects them and protects their parents,” he said in a video released by his office.

The Jewish state was one of the first countries to launch a massive vaccination campaign in December 2020 thanks to a deal with drug giant Pfizer promising quick access to millions of vaccine doses in exchange for large-scale vaccine results. .

The campaign allowed two doses to vaccinate at least 5.7 million of the approximately nine million Israelis, or more than 80 percent of adults.

Authorities then launched a memorial campaign, which has already been distributed to more than four million citizens. They also reduced the age of access to the vaccine to 12 years, before giving the green light to vaccinate children from the age of five.