Vaccinations to extend to youths of 16 to 18

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced that youths of 16 to 18 will be eligible for covid vaccination as of next Sunday, to prepare them for a safer return to high school at the end of the current lockdown next month. The Health and Education Ministries will work with the Sick Funds on the logistics of the project. The sick funds say they can manage to ratchet up the pace of immunizations by 30pc. On Thursday, boosted by army paramedics, they broke another record with 224,000 shots. To date, 2,450 million Israelis have been injected with first doses, 850,000 with the second.

Another 7,099 new coronavirus cases were registered in Friday; 8.9pc positive tests  recorded and 1,128 patients in serious condition.