TEL AVIV – Israel will start vaccinating high school students to target a demographic that is likely to accelerate the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
With the capacity to handle about 200,000 people a day, the country’s health authorities can briefly vaccinate Israel’s about 300,000 16- to 18-year-olds, but the challenge is to ensure that everyone shows up. Israel has approved the vaccine for anyone older than 16 years. It will not vaccinate 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 10- to 19-year-olds making up 21% of known infections. The 20- to 29-year-old age group is responsible for 19% of known infections.
“They are the mega-distributors,” Ido Hadari, director of government relations at Maccabi Healthcare Services, said of high school students. “If we vaccinate these guys, they’ll stop being distributors.”
Israel is leading the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, which has so far administered the first dose of Pfizer Inc. vaccine to nearly 30% of the population since the end of December. Israel also has some shipments of the vaccine Moderna Inc. received, but so far relies mainly on Pfizer.