Emotional damage A pilot programme conducted last week focused on mainly ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities found that roughly a fifth of children had developed antibodies, army radio reported Sunday.
Education ministry director general Yigal Slovik said in a statement last month that last year's school closures caused "emotional and social damage" to students. "The lockdowns and remote learning caused a 44% increase in referrals for suicidal risk diagnosis," among other impacts, he said.
Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December via an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness.