SOURCE: As­so­ci­at­ed Press

TEL AVIV, Is­rael (AP) — Is­rael on Tues­day be­gan ad­min­is­ter­ing the coro­n­avirus vac­cine to chil­dren aged 5 to 11.

The coun­try re­cent­ly emerged from a fourth COVID wave, and dai­ly in­fec­tions have been rel­a­tive­ly low for the last few weeks. But Health Min­istry sta­tis­tics show that a large share of the new in­fec­tions have been in chil­dren and teenagers.

Chil­dren aged 5 to 11 make up near­ly half of ac­tive cas­es. Of­fi­cials hope the new in­oc­u­la­tion cam­paign will help bring down the num­bers and per­haps stave off a new wave.

Is­raeli me­dia re­port­ed low de­mand for the shots on the first day they were avail­able to this age group. Is­raeli Prime Min­is­ter Naf­tali Ben­nett was ex­pect­ed to ac­com­pa­ny his son David, 9, lat­er Tues­day to get his jab in a bid to en­cour­age par­ents to have their chil­dren vac­ci­nat­ed.

Is­rael, which has a pop­u­la­tion of more than 9 mil­lion, has had more than 1.3 mil­lion in­fec­tions since the start of the pan­dem­ic and more than 8,100 deaths.