The coronavirus infection rate remained low over the weekend (0.72%) with 220 Israelis testing positive for the virus of the 34,339 screened altogether, according to Health Ministry data. The reproduction rate stands at 0.88.
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There are 5,843 active cases in the country with 205 patients hospitalized. Of those, 156 are in serious condition.
Thus far, 4,016,195 Israelis have been fully vaccinated, 5,752,941 received two jabs and 6,256,219 got inoculated with one dose.
Israel has reported 1,337,041 cases, including 8,140 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Coronavirus Commissioner Salman Zarka said the national children's vaccination campaign would begin next week and that Israel was awaiting a shipment of Pfizer's special kids' doses – which are just a third of the amount given to teens and adults.
Last week, a ministry advisory committee had endorsed Pfizer's inoculations for ages 5-11, which according to Zarka, Director-General Nachman Ash is expected to approve on Sunday.
Ash had previously assured parents of the doses' safety and stressed that "anyone who gets vaccinated reduces the chance of a fifth [morbidity] wave erupting. It is not right to wait for an increase in infection, we do not know when this will happen and vaccines need time to work. Even now, 200 children get infected every day, and we want to prevent that."
The kids' doses have already been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With regard to possible future infection waves, Zarka said the ministry was keeping a close watch on other strains across the world.
"It would be difficult to prevent a variant from invading Israel, but we very much want to identify it early and therefore we are keeping our fingers on the pulse," he said.
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