With the start of the new school year approaching on Sept 1, Israel says it will vaccinate pupils against the Coronavirus during school hours.

Parents’ consent was required for this, the government’s Coronavirus Cabinet announced on Monday.

Israel generally vaccinated children who were 12 years old and above, in exceptional cases even as young as five.

However, the latter only applies to children who are particularly at risk for example, due to extreme obesity, severe chronic lung diseases, or heart problems.

The country of 9.4 million inhabitants was currently trying to slow the rise of new Coronavirus infections with a fresh vaccination campaign.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health reported 5,383 new cases.

At the same time, 672 seriously ill people have registered the highest figure since March while 16 more people died.

So far, almost 59 percent of the population had been vaccinated twice: about 29 percent of 12 to 15-year-olds and 69 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds.

For the over-70s, the proportion was over 90 percent.

Because of the pandemic, special rules apply at schools.

In red cities with particularly high numbers of new infections, there were only face-to-face classes if at least 70 percent of the students in the class were vaccinated; otherwise, they all have to attend online classes.

In addition, about 1.6 million pupils are to be tested for antibodies against the virus this month.

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Those who can prove they have antibodies would not have to be quarantined but if there is a case of Coronavirus in the class.

In addition, two million students were to take a rapid test at home immediately before school starts again.