Two 6-year-old children with serious, complex underlying health problems died on Thursday after contracting coronavirus. They were both unvaccinated.
Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva said that the children died of the virus in the hospital’s intensive care unit for children after their condition deteriorated over the previous days.
The hospital said it is currently treating 10 children in intensive care, with eight in a serious condition. The ICU unit also noted that they recently released a 17-year-old girl with COVID, who was hospitalized in serious condition and required ventilation.
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Isaac Lazar, director of Soroka’s pediatric ICU, said the children had serious underlying health problems “who were infected with the coronavirus and their condition was exacerbated by the virus. It’s important to vaccine children in order to prevent infection and serious illness. Because of the accelerating rate of infection, our concern is that we will start seeing children without underlying illnesses who could develop complications as a result of the virus.”
Israel began vaccinating children aged 5-11 in November, but 90 percent of that age group remains unvaccinated.
On Thursday, Israel recorded an all-time high in coronavirus infections, with the number of positive tests in a single day exceeding 16,000.
