Coronavirus infections among Israeli children went up from 3,636 to 5,297 over the past 10 days, the Health Ministry reported on Sunday, marking a surge of nearly 50%.
In addition, some 41,000 students and 1,156 school faculty were in quarantine.
According to data released by the ministry, 351 children tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday alone, with the infection rate among Israelis under the age of 18 standing at 2.2% — higher than the national average.
Despite the rise in cases, the pediatric vaccination campaign has yet to pick up steam.
Data shows that only 15.6% of children aged 5-11 have had at least one dose. For comparison, 61% and 78% of the 12-15 and 16-18 age groups, respectively, have received both shots.
The coronavirus cabinet last week decided that students would return to distance learning in local authorities with low vaccination rates in the wake of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The decision that requires the approval of the Knesset Education Committee, will be implemented first for grades 7-12 on Monday and for elementary schools three weeks later.
According to the decision, children will switch to remote studies if less than 70% of the population at a particular local authority has been fully vaccinated.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli health officials said there has been a 20-fold spike in infections from the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the past 10 days.
Health officials warned if the current contagion rate does not slow down, Israel could see its number of daily COVID cases pass the 10,000 threshold in just two weeks.
Just hours earlier, the Health Ministry reported the national coronavirus infection rate has surpassed two percent for the first time since late October.
"In the last few days, the country's number of Omicron patients has jumped from about 20 per day to 450. This is an increase of more than 20 times," Prof. Eran Segal, the architect of Weizmann Institute's COVID forecasting model, told Ynet.
"I estimate that within a week we will see thousands of verified Omicron cases, and it is possible that within two weeks we will surpass our record number of daily COVID cases, which was about 10,000 verified per day."
Segal urged some two million Israelis who remain unvaccinated against the pathogen to get inoculated as soon as possible.