Israeli PM Naftali Bennett sets goal to vaccinate 50% of children aged 5-11 by end of 2021

Israeli PM Naftali Bennett on Sunday, 21 November, said that the nation’s goal is to vaccinate 50% of children aged between 5 and 11 by the end of December. According to the Times of Israel, Bennett had previously announced that the country will begin to vaccinate children starting Tuesday, 23 November. This came after the Jewish state gave approval for inoculating the younger children with Pfizer-BioNTech jabs. 

Now, Bennett has announced the goal to vaccinate 50% of children aged 5-11 by the end of this year. He made the remark during a meeting with general managers of the country’s four health maintenance organisations. The managers reportedly informed the Israeli PM of the preparation for vaccination rollout for the children. 

Around 5.7 million fully vaccinated in Israel 

As per the media outlet, the jabs for children would be one-third the size of an adult dose. It is to mention that the Israeli authorities had already begun vaccinating minors aged 12 to 17. They decided to lower the age threshold in the wake of trials by Pfizer and recommendations from a panel of Israeli scientists. The clinical trials on children have shown the vaccine to be 90.7% effective in preventing symptomatic illness. 

Israel has joined several other countries offering vaccines to young children. They include the US, which is also using Pfizer, as well as the UAE, Cambodia, Colombia and Cuba. It is to mention that Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 last year thanks to a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech that gave the Jewish state access to millions of doses in exchange for data on the vaccine's efficacy. According to the official data by the Israel health ministry, as many as 6,263,415 people have received the first dose of vaccines while 5,761,459 have been fully vaccinated. Of those, 4,038,711 people have received a third booster shot.

(With inputs from ANI)