Israel has just taken a drastic step in its fight against the spread of the coronavirus. The country will indeed impose the health pass on children over three years old, the authorities announced Wednesday evening. The goal of the Hebrew state is to avoid further confinement.
Faced with an increase in contamination in recent weeks linked to the spread of the Delta variant, the country put in place on July 29 this pass, called “green badge”, which allows access to certain places to people who have been fully vaccinated, cured of the disease. Covid-19 or with a negative test. The Israeli government has therefore extended these measures to children aged 3 to 12.
The test reimbursed for children
Israel also set up rapid antigen testing stations across the country on Sunday, run by the Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service, and made quarantine mandatory for people returning from most countries around the world, vaccinated or not. Screening at these stations costs 52 shekels (about 17 euros) and allows you to obtain the health pass from the Ministry of Health, valid for 24 hours. “It will be supported by the state for children aged 3 to 12 from August 18,” the date of entry into force of the measure, said the Prime Minister’s office.
A country of nine million inhabitants, Israel was one of the first to launch a vast vaccination campaign in December, thanks to an agreement with Pfizer. The campaign has made it possible to bring down the number of cases, but in recent weeks contamination has increased again with the spread of the Delta variant, in unvaccinated adults but also in people vaccinated more than six months ago. In the last 24 hours, 5,802 new cases have been identified. According to the latest official report, the country has recorded a total of 918,237 infections and 6,587 deaths since the start of the pandemic.