Remarks come as Teachers Union threatens strike if teachers aren't vaccinated.
By HANNAH BROWNEmpty classroom at Cramim school, Beit Hakerem, Jerusalem, October 21 2020(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
Just an hour before Israel entered its third lockdown, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said in a briefing Sunday evening that teachers and school staff would receive vaccinations after the first round of vaccinations that are currently being given to those over 60 and the chronically ill. The details of how and when that would happen would be determined “over the next few days,” he said.His remarks came as Yaffa Ben-David, secretary-general of the Teachers Union, opened a labor dispute, saying, “If there are no vaccines, there will be no studying.”Ash disagreed with the decision of the Knesset's Education Committee earlier Sunday to continue in-person learning for grades 5-10, which was the original coronavirus cabinet plan last Thursday."According to our recommendation, the education system should have been closed," he said. "The government's decision was to allow the opening of kindergartens, grades 1-4 and 11-12. Any additional opening of classrooms means extending the duration of the closure and lowering its effectiveness. In my opinion, it is right to make the closure as short as possible, to limit activities and not to conduct studies among other age groups."The commissioner stressed that “we are in a race between the rate of infection and the effect of the vaccine,” saying that the current rate of infection – the number of people each person with the virus infects – is at 1.26 (four will infect five more). The effectiveness of this closure would not be felt for 10 days to two weeks, he said.The effectiveness of the lockdown “depends on how much we observe the regulations. If we do this together, we can exit the lockdown faster," Ash said. "The intensity of the morbidity depends on the public's adherence to the guidelines."
