The State of Israel is set to launch a COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children ages 5-11 starting next week, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported Sunday.
Special, reduced doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is scheduled to arrive in the Jewish State by Thursday at the latest, Hebrew-language media reported. The special doses were ordered from Pfizer two weeks ago.
The coronavirus vaccine for young children is one-third of the adult dose.
More than 6.2 million Israelis have received at least one dose of the two-shot vaccine series to date; 5.7 million Israelis have received the full two-shot series and more than four million have already received the third “booster” shot.
That having been said, 58 percent of teens ages 12 to 15 have been vaccinated, and just a few more – 63 percent – in the 16 to 19 year old group have been inoculated.
The Health Ministry’s vaccination committee is expected to meet on Wednesday this week to discuss how to schedule the first and second dose of the children’s vaccine, according to Ynet.
Israeli medical teams at local HMOs are to receive special instructions on how to administer the doses in the coming days.
“It is the parents’ choice, but I call on parents to safeguard their children and have them vaccinated,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in opening remarks on Sunday at the weekly government cabinet meeting.
“I will certainly take my young son David to get vaccinated as soon as possible. It could be that his mother will take him, but we will take him to be vaccinated,” Bennett said.
