As Coronavirus infection cases have risen in Israel, the country has rolled out administering Covid-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11 on Monday. With this, Israel becomes one of those few nations to vaccinate children so young with the hopes to beat down the recent spike in virus cases.
The Jewish state was hit by a fourth wave of Covid in June fuelled by Delta variant and began to subsidise in September. Israel became one of the first countries to launch early campaigns for booster shots.
Kids in Israel are being inoculated with Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shots.
This also comes when daily cases have risen in the past few days and half of the confirmed infection cases have been reported amongst children age 11 and even younger.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Facebook said the country is going through a "children's wave" and on Monday children’s vaccination drive kicked off where parents were seen along with their kids to get them vaccinated.
Authorities in Israel had started immunising teenagers between 12 to 17 years old, however, decided to decrease the age number amid the vaccine trials by Pfizer and recommendations from a panel of Israeli scientists.
As the campaign for younger kids goes official nationwide on Tuesday, doses were already given to some on Monday night in Tel Aviv Square.
"Right now during the epidemic, the best tool to protect our children is vaccination," said Heli Nave, a nurse who administered jabs of Pfizer-BioNTech to children.
"It is not an easy decision at all" she adds, but the data from the United States that has started vaccinating children aged between five-to-11 earlier this month has convinced it to be safe.
Meanwhile, prime minister Bennett's office announced that his youngest son is scheduled to get his jab on Tuesday morning.
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Over 5.7 million of the Israelites, nine million are now fully vaccinated. While the country has 1.2 million young children in the 5 to 11 age group. Scientists, meanwhile, have said that it is doubtful if the country will reach "herd immunity" unless children are vaccinated.
Policymakers in Israel have said that the vaccination of younger children has to be taken first to protect their health and not just to curb the transmission of the disease.