Concern in Israel at the increase in cases among the child population
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present a proposal to the Government on Sunday to prohibit the entry and exit of all foreign and Israeli passengers from Ben Gurion airport amid fears over the discovery of new strains of the coronavirus and the increase in cases , particularly among the child population.
Netanyahu is convinced of the need to drastically reduce entries and exits, which can only occur with a special permit, over a period of 14 days. According to Channel 12 sources, the prime minister wants to stop all flights, including those that are already vaccinated.
This information is released after a new Israeli government rule came into force last night that requires a negative PCR carried out within 72 hours before the flight of anyone who wants to enter the country.
Meanwhile, Israeli health officials have detected a worrying increase in cases of coronavirus in children and adolescents, according to data collected this Sunday by the ‘Yedioth Ahronoth’.
Since the beginning of the year, 51,218 cases have been confirmed in patients under the age of 18, an increase from the approximately 34,000 cases identified during the second wave of the virus and 93 times more than the number recorded during the first wave.
There are currently five children hospitalized in Israel in critical condition, more than in any other month since the start of the pandemic. Since the beginning of January, 138 children have been hospitalized, nine of them in serious or critical condition.
Experts say they cannot explain the increase in cases in young patients, but believe it can be attributed to new variants of the virus that are now spreading rapidly among the population.
