TEL AVIV – Israel will start vaccinating high school students to target a demographic group suspected of accelerating the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
With the capacity to serve about 200,000 people a day, the country’s health authorities can vaccinate about 300,000 young people aged 16 to 18 from Israel in a short time, but the challenge will be to ensure that everyone shows up for an injection. Israel approved the vaccine for anyone over 16 years old. It does not inoculate anyone under that age.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that Israel’s younger population is much more likely to test positive for the coronavirus, with those aged 10 to 19 representing 21% of known infections. The 20 to 29 age group is responsible for 19% of known infections.
“They are the great disseminators,” said Ido Hadari, director of government relations at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel, about high school students. “If we vaccinate these guys, they will stop being propagators.”
Israel is leading the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, so far delivering the first dose of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine to nearly 30% of its population since the beginning in late December. Israel also received some shipments of the vaccine Moderna Inc., but so far it depends mostly on Pfizer.