Israel has so far spent 2.6 billion shekels ($787 million) to procurement coronavirus vaccines from various manufacturers so far, and has earmarked an additional NIS 2.5 billion ($757 million) for future such transactions, the Health and the Finance ministries revealed Tuesday at a Knesset Finance Committee meeting.
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The committee met to discuss the Health Ministry's coronavirus budget and appropriated about NIS 2 billion ($605 million) to aid its efforts in curbing the pandemic.
The ministry will be able to use the money to treat patients, fund its vaccination drive, hire and train more workers for its inoculation sites, as well as research and testing.
"I would like to praise Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] for the vaccination drive," committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said. "We are pleased that the vaccines are working and that we can begin to resume a normal routine."
Also on Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported that of the 86,152 Israelis screened for COVID-19 the day before, 2,003 tested positive, placing the infection rate at 2.4%.
Some 961 Israelis are hospitalized, 602 of whom are in serious condition, and 211 are on ventilators.
Israel has recorded 821,762 coronavirus casesm including 6,037 deaths since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. To date, 788,685 Israelis have recovered from the virus.
As part of the national vaccination drive, 5,200,395 Israelis have received their first jabs, and 4,291,116 have been fully immunized.
Meanwhile, data published by the Health Ministry Monday revealed that the number of children under the age of 16 who contracted the coronavirus during the third wave of infections had doubled compared to the second resurgence of the virus, last fall. At the same time, the number of patients hospitalized with the virus did not increase.
Some 69,599 children were reported to have contracted the virus during the second wave in the summer of 2020, and 148,651 during the third one in December last year.
Both periods saw a high percentage of infected children from the ultra-Orthodox sector. In May, they made up 38% of the total children infected, in December they made up a third of all cases among minors.
Children made up 44% of the total number of Israelis infected in the second wave, and 52% in the third one. During the first wave of infections that occurred at the outbreak of the pandemic in Israel in March 2020, 2620 children got infected.
Some 75 children were hospitalized with COVID during the first wave, 548 during the second wave, and 653 during the third wave, making up less than 1% of the total number of Israelis hospitalized.
Children made up 0.87% of all Israelis hospitalized during the second wave, and 0.45% during the third one. Children from the Haredi sector made up 0.5% of those hospitalized during the second wave, and 0.31% during the third one. As for the Arab sector, children made up 1.24% of those hospitalized during the second wave, and 0.71% during the third one.
The vast majority of children who were hospitalized exhibited mild symptoms. During the second wave, 1.1% of all children hospitalized were in a critical condition and 5.8% in serious condition. During the third wave, 2.5% were in critical condition and 4.1% in serious condition.
"The data proves that which we have been claiming, that the British mutation causes an increase of infection among children," Professor Tzahi Grossman, chairman of the Israel Pediatric Association, said.
Nevertheless, he explained, the British variant is less dangerous for children, but does cause more serious illness among adults.
Prof. Hagai Levine, epidemiologist, public health physician from the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center, explained that the government's closure of the education system turned out to be unjustified.
"Children got infected during the third lockdown even when the education system was closed, which shows that schools are not the main engine of infection."
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