Israel is setting out to remove the guesswork of the question of how many children have been infected of COVID-19, conducting a national survey of children ages 3-12 of coronavirus antibodies.
The Health Ministry, Education Ministry, and Israel Defense Force Home Front Command are working together in the program starting Sunday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The survey hopes to get data on how deeply the COVID-19 pandemic has penetrated the elementary school age children undetected over the past year and a half.
IDF teams will take 1,400 finger-prick, 15-minute blood tests at locations around the country, hoping to get information on Israeli's estimated 1.4 million children in that age group.
Scientists suspect many more children have been infected with COVID-19 than showed symptoms, hoping this study gives a better look at the overall exposure rate among Israel's children.
Israel has seen a surge in COVID-19 infections, likely from the delta variant, despite a reported high rate of vaccination and early success from the Pfizer vaccine among adults throughout the country. Also, 1.3 million have received a COVID-19 booster vaccination dose.
Israel's government is hoping a high number of children show evidence of COVID-19 antibodies, permitting them to get a Green Pass to exempt them from mandatory quarantine and testing, according to the report.
Israel has been widely praised for their aggressive COVID-19 pandemic response and have led the way on booster shots, which will be followed up in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and France starting in September, Haaretz reported.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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