The IDF announced on Thursday it will assist Israel with expanding its vaccination campaign and help implement the government's outline for the opening of the school year.
The military's Home Front Command will in the coming days enlist 600 reservist medics to aid with administrating the booster shot to people aged 40-50, as well as undertake the massive task of testing the country's over one million students.
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IDF Home Front Command soldiers at a coronavirus testing facility in Bnei Brak
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
To oversee this mission, the Home Front Command reopened its Alon Command Center, which has been transferred to be under the jurisdiction of the Health Ministry.
The unit will consist of some 1,000 soldiers, among them epidemiological researchers, as well as hundreds of medics and community liaison officers.
Under the approved government outline, the IDF will conduct serological tests for anti-bodies to all students after the High Holidays next month. Some testing might take place before September 1 in accordance with the pilot already launched in Haredi schools.
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Haredi students being tested for anti-bodies at a clinic in Kiryat Ye'arim
(Photo: Gil Yohanan)
"We see immense cooperation with the Haredi sector, parents are fully on board and are sending their kids to be tested," said a Home Front Command senior officer to reporters.
"So far, we have discovered that 20% of ultra-Orthodox students have anti-bodies, who will in turn receive a certificate that they have recovered from the virus and be able to go to class normally. In the settlement of Modi'in Ilit, this number reached 34%."
The officer said the testing will begin with elementary schools and only then expand to high schools, adding that talks are underway with the Education Ministry to have the sites also provide vaccines.
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Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meeting with Home Front Commad officers at the Alon Command Center
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The Home Front Command will also launch a massive PR campaign at 27 local authorities to encourage teenagers to get innoculated, set to later expand to some 50 localities.
"In places where we started working, we have seen vaccination rates double, but this is still not enough, 50% of teenagers have yet to be inoculated," the officer said.
In addition, the Home Front Command will relaunch its hospitals' assistance unit and establish two wards which will be manned by the Medical Corps to care for coronavirus serious patients.
First published: 13:32, 08.12.21