The rapidly growing coronavirus infection rates caused by the Delta variant has prompted Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service, to reopen vaccination centers across Israel.
This time, however, the vaccination centers will be targeting 12- to 15-year-olds, who only recently were approved to receive the Pfizer vaccine.
More than 10,000 teens were vaccinated on Tuesday, according to Dr. Shafir Botner, director of paramedic training for MDA, who’s also been the acting director for the organization’s coronavirus field operations.
“The goal is to ultimately be vaccinating about 25,000 of the younger teens every day to provide as many eligible Israelis as possible with immunological protection against the disease,” Botner said.
“If teens come into the vaccination centers accompanied by unvaccinated parents,” said Yoni Yagodovsky, director of international relations for MDA, “we will gladly vaccinate them as well.”
Israel leads the world in terms of having fully vaccinated citizens, with just under 60% having received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the mRDA vaccine Israel has been using almost exclusively. However, slightly more than 40% of the population still remains unvaccinated, a number that hasn’t shrunk significantly in recent weeks, consistent with a trend that’s been seen in many countries with access to vaccines.
The Delta variant, which was first reported in India, is of particular concern because it’s thought to be 50% more contagious than the original variant of coronavirus and may also elicit more severe symptoms, although improvements in treatments have made it difficult to determine that with certainty.
In addition, about 43% of all people who tested positive for the Delta variant in Israel this week were fully vaccinated, Yagodovsky said. And while the vast majority of them were asymptomatic, some were exhibiting signs of illness, and even the asymptomatic people may act as conduits to the disease’s spread, putting unvaccinated citizens at the greatest risk.
With that in mind, MDA will also be reopening swab-test centers to detect infected people as early as possible to afford them early treatment, when it’s most effective and when the risk of Covid-positive people becoming vectors for spread can be minimized.
In addition, while Israel had all but completely opened up in recent weeks, it recently re-imposed mask restrictions for indoor spaces, a move consistent with recent World Health Organization recommendations.
“The true impact of the Delta variant will be seen in two or three weeks,” Yagodovsky said. “At that time, we’ll see if the increase in positive coronavirus tests resulted in severe disease by gauging the increase in hospitalizations.”
