Israel’s ‘Green Classroom’ COVID outline to start on Sunday in more schools * 16-year-old dies of post-COVID syndrome
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
PEOPLE IN THE 50+ age group receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit Health Care Center in Katzrin on Monday.
(photo credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)
Some 7% of Israel’s serious and critical COVID-19 cases were vaccinated with three shots of the coronavirus vaccine, according to data released Friday morning by the Health Ministry.
However, the number of new daily cases is declining and the government voted to roll out the Green Class outline in several green cities on Sunday to help keep children out of isolation.
“I cannot say that 7% is a lot,” Health Minister Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash told The Jerusalem Post. “The vaccine, even the third shot, does not work at 100%. It is 95% effective.”
He said that there are also always a small percentage of people for whom the vaccine does not work as well, such as those who are immunosuppressed.
More than three million Israelis have been fully vaccinated with two shots and a booster. There were around 460 serious and critical cases on Friday, so 7% is around 32 people, meaning less than 0.00001% of people who have had a third shot are in serious condition.
“This is even better than we could have expected,” Ash said.
Another 17% were vaccinated with two shots more than six months ago, according to the data.
The majority (71%) were unvaccinated. The rest were recovered (3%), vaccinated and got sick before a full week had passed (2%) or recovered and vaccinated (1%).
Some 6.1 million Israelis have had a first shot, 5.7 million two shots and 3.7 million all three shots.
In general, the virus seems to be declining even as children have returned to school after the holidays. However, the number of patients connected to life-saving heart-lung ECMO machines is at a peak, with close to 60 people being connected last week, according to Ash.
He said 90% of ECMO cases are unvaccinated and under the age of 60 – 20% are under the age of 40.
One young man, a 16-year-old teen, who had been diagnosed with post-COVID syndrome (pediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome or PIMS) died Saturday morning at Schneider Children’s Medical Center. He is believed to be the first Israeli to die from the rare condition.
The teen, identified by Israeli media as Aden Jamal Fayumi from Jaljulia, was unvaccinated.
He had been transferred to Schneider from Meir Medical Center about 12 days ago and connected to the ECMO machine for 10 days.
PIMS is still considered rare. Around 100 Israeli children are known to have been diagnosed with post-COVID syndrome, but around half of these cases have been during the Delta wave.
“I think we are seeing a rise in PIMS in recent weeks,” Schneider’s Dr. Ofer Schiller said in a video message following the teen’s death.
There were 2,064 people diagnosed with the virus on Thursday, the Health Ministry said, with 2.4% of those screened testing positive. There are nearly 32,000 active cases of coronavirus in Israel. Of the 460 serious cases, 183 were intubated.
The death toll stood at 7,885.
“To the merit of the vaccines, we managed to refrain from rolling out more severe restrictions,” Ash told the Post.
He said that only a month ago, the Health Ministry was pushing to prevent large gatherings – a recommendation that was not accepted – but “now we have passed the peak and the numbers are going down. Of course, we do not see any reason for new restrictions. We agree with the government that now we should lighten restrictions rather than increasing them.”
To that point, Israeli children living in green cities ;earned late Thursday night that they will no longer have to enter isolation if one of their classmates catches coronavirus, according to a decision announced by the Prime Minister’s Office and Health Ministry.
“Determination paid off, a model for shortening isolations that we had been asking for since July was brought forward and will be launched in an extended manner in all the green localities as early as this coming Sunday,” Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton posted on Facebook Friday morning. “Every effort is being made to expand it to all educational institutions in the country, to bring maximum school days to our children and make it easier for their dear parents.”
According to the outline, starting Sunday, if a student in one of the approved classrooms in these cities tests positive for COVID, everyone in the class will be asked to take a PCR test. Everyone whose test is negative will be able to return to their normal school routine but test with a rapid antigen test daily to ensure they don’t have the virus.
Students will test for seven days and then take a second PCR test to confirm they are virus free. If they are, then the whole class can resume learning.
There are nearly 300 green cities that will qualify for the program, according to a list distributed Friday morning by the Education Ministry. However, it is still unclear exactly which schools will participate in the outline.
We have been authorized to enter the Green Classroom program. Also, in order for a school to participate, 80% of parents need to authorize their commitment.
In September, Israel peaked with around 155,000 students in isolation.
On Thursday, the Health Ministry reported that there were more than 92,000 children and teachers in isolation and that 1,359 students had tested positive the day before.