Vaccinations of Israeli kids aged 5-11 begin next week

Health Ministry Dir-Gen. Prof. Nahman Ash has approved vaccination of children aged five to 11 against Covid-19 starting next week. This follows authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine for this age group by the FDA and a panel of Israeli experts. It will be available subject to parent’s permission either at schools or at Kupat Holim centers. This young group will receive a 10-mg dose of the vaccine, one-third of the shot administered for other ages. Pfizer and BioNTech have said their vaccine showed 90.7pc efficacy against the coronavirus in a clinical trial of children aged five to 11.

The Health ministry stressed the importance of quickly protecting all age groups against the virus especially wince since new variants have been detected in some European countries.