Children less likely than adults to be reinfected with COVID-19

 

The Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee on Monday morning held a discussion on the new coronavirus rules, approving the Coronavirus Cabinet's decision to remove Brazil, Bulgaria, and Turkey from the no-fly list and ending the restrictions on leaving Israel for high-risk countries, Israel Hayom reported.

"Starting yesterday night, there are no countries which are not allowed to be traveled to," said MK Gilad Kariv (Labor), who chairs the committee. "The general public would do well to follow which countries have travel warnings, for the sake of everyone's health."

Senior Health Ministry official Ilana Gans said, "There are some countries in Europe which have enormously high infection rates, in particular Romania and Serbia, both of which are in the list of travel warnings. But as of today, travel is permitted to every country in the world."

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, Head of Public Health services, said, "In examining the chance of reinfection among children, we see that infection rates are 50% less than among adults. Therefore, we can allow children to keep their Green Pass, even if more than six months have passed. In addition, the older children become, the greater chance of infection, as well as of reinfection. Teenagers are at the greatest risk of becoming ill."

She added: "Those who recovered [from coronavirus] can receive the vaccine after three months. It doesn't hurt, but we don't need to push them to do that - they can get vaccinated until up to six months later. Those who recovered after being vaccinated have six months to receive the next dose. Whoever tests positive in a serological test - we don't know when they were ill, and so we treat them as people who were infected a while ago, other than with the exception of children under age 12."