Virus Rates Watched in Schools

As the lower grades of elementary schools opened for a second day on Monday, health and education officials monitored the data closely, anxious to stem any resurgence of the coronavirus.

The Education Ministry reported on Monday that 262 preschool students across Israel have tested positive for coronavirus, making around 2.5% of all active cases in the country.

In elementary schools, 516 students out of over a million have tested positive, and 537 out of some 800,000 middle and high school students have contracted the virus.

Contagion among students was widely seen as a main cause of the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Meanwhile, the IDF Home Front Command, which has been working with the Health Ministry in fighting the coronavirus, said on Monday that it would be implementing a plan for mass testing at the entrances to shopping malls, office building and other venues where large numbers of shoppers and commuters pass each day.

Also on Monday, the condition of a 17-year-old boy — hospitalized in Assuta Medical Center’s pediatric intensive care unit with complications from the coronavirus — reportedly worsened.

The boy was anesthetized and intubated, and transferred to Schneider Children’s Medical Center for further treatment, including being connected to an ECMO system.

The boy recovered from the coronavirus weeks ago, but he had not recovered from the effects of the symptoms.