Covid vaccine is effective against UK strain says Israel, as it warns of rising cases in children

Or, an 18-year-old, receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at Clalit Health Services

Credit: AFP/AFP

Israel has said it is confident that vaccines are effective against the UK strain of coronavirus, but dampened hopes of a swift reopening of schools as it warned that young children were particularly susceptible to the new variant. 

"The vaccine works against the British mutation but the virus infection rate is much faster than the vaccine rate," said Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, the Israeli government’s public health chief.

Israeli officials have warned that as much as 70 per cent of new coronavirus cases in the country may have been caused by the UK strain, and that children are more likely to catch it than first expected.

"Forty per cent of illness is in children, a higher percentage than their part in the population," Dr Alroy-Preis told Israeli reporters on Monday. 

"We see a rise in infections in ages six to nine, which is exactly the age group that is supposed to go back to school [at the end of lockdown].” 

More than a quarter of Israel’s population has been vaccinated against coronavirus, with over-40s given priority.

Over the weekend, Israel expanded the scheme to include 16 to 18-year-olds so they can sit important high school exams on schedule. 

Meanwhile Nachman Ash, the Israeli coronavirus tsar, said he believed the vaccines would be effective against all new strains but was particularly confident about the UK variant.

"Most of the mutations we believe the vaccines will stop, we know this with a very high probability regarding the British variant,” he told Israeli radio station 103 FM. 

“Regarding the South African, we have no clear results, it is still being tested both here and worldwide," he added. 

It came as a new study by Maccabi, an Israeli healthcare provider, reported a 60 per cent decrease in vaccinated over-60s being hospitalised with coronavirus.

According to the research, the rate of hospitalisations fell significantly from day 23 onwards, which was two days after the patients received a second dose of the vaccine.

Some members of Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community have taken to the streets to protest against the country’s third nationwide lockdown. 

A bus driver was dragged from his seat and the vehicle set ablaze during a riot in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak on Monday. 

Israeli officials say that 9.3 per cent of the coronavirus tests results recorded on Sunday came back as positive, the second-highest level this month. 

More than 1,000 people have died from coronavirus in Israel this month, bringing the total death toll to 4,419.