Alarm: The number of students infected with Corona increased by 480% in December

The number of students with Corona increased by 480% in December. According to the Ministry of Health, 80,000 adults, mostly parents, have been infected with children since March. The concern: Without the tightening of the closure, even the lower classes will be "corona incubators."
"Out of 20 interrogations I received today, 12 were children (60%). There were several other adults who were infected from their children, who were infected in schools. This is the case almost every day these days," he wrote this week on Facebook in the Ministry of Health's epidemiological investigations.
"The education system is probably the main contagion vector in the country, and it could be devastating to the economy right now," he continued. "There is a delicate balance between the stage where opening up the education system allows parents to go to work and the stage where opening up the system prevents parents from going to work. These days there is massive infection in schools and kindergartens, and every infected child actually puts their parents in isolation. I assume that this time too, as in the previous closure, we will act too slowly and too late. "
The respondent's words correspond with data presented by the Ministry of Health in the Korna Cabinet last week. According to the ministry's estimates, students in the country have infected 80,000 adults, mostly from their families, with their parents and grandparents since March. The ministry's assessment is based on a study conducted among 8,000 cases of adult infection by students, and according to the Ministry of Health, this is a "careful assessment."
Prof. Doron Gazit, a member of the team advising Education Minister Yoav Galant: According to data from the Ministry of Education, in December alone, the number of students in Corona in the education system increased by 480% - to 10,381 active patients. About 2,000 teachers were found sick and 65,000 teachers and students are in isolation. A significant part of the morbidity in schools stems from ultra-Orthodox education - most of whose schools did not obey instructions during the second and subsequent closure period, and continued to operate. About 40% of the sick students are ultra-Orthodox (the representation of ultra-Orthodox students from the entire education system is 20%). Following the rise in morbidity, Corona projector Prof. Nachman Ash said tonight that "the education system should be closed and jobs reduced to a two-week period."

 proportion of students infected - increased
In the last week and a half, the proportion of students infected in Corona has risen above their representation in the population (children are about 25% of the total population in Israel), up to 31% of the number of new infections, compared to about 15% of new infections before high school and middle school. In addition, the rate of positive tests among students is higher than that of adults.
Data from the Ministry of Health also show that since March, every decision to resume education made by the government has led to an increase in the incidence of children and adults, and an increase in the number of infections of adults by children. Despite Galant's claim that if schools close, students will be infected at parties and social events - the data indicates a significant reduction in morbidity when no classes are held. However, since the outbreak of the corona in March, the government and the Ministry of Education have not introduced a method that would allow them to study confidently in most age groups and the distance learning system has not improved.
Most of the morbidity, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Education, comes from middle and high schools. Morbidity rates in these strata may be higher, due to the Ministry of Education's decision to allow each high school student to visit three different capsules each day - and middle schools two different capsules.

Data from the Ministry of Health from recent weeks indicated a relatively low number of tests conducted in schools. Despite this, only in recent days has the number of tests conducted for high school and middle school students increased, so it is likely that there is a latent morbidity in schools and that the number of students infected with corona is higher than reported.
A similar debate is raging in schools, and many school principals argue that education should be continued.
The Ministry of Health presented to the Corona Cabinet data according to which children aged 5-17 "take an active and significant part in infecting adults. At the time when schools are open, this infection is on the rise. "The rate of infections caused by students in May suggests that the opening of schools was a significant cause of morbidity in the following months."
70% of the adults infected by students are from the "parent generation", 9% were grandparents (aged 55 and over) and the remaining 21% were younger brothers and friends. There are differences between the students: the students in the middle and high school ages are 2.6 times more contagious than the students in the fourth-seventh grades and more than six times as many as the students in the first-second grades. Students in grades 4-7 are 1.7 times more contagious than students in grades 1-2.
These figures rekindle the great debate over the opening of the education system during the plague. Currently, despite the discovery of the mutation, schools and kindergartens continue to operate as usual: kindergartens and grades 1-4 also operate in orange and red localities. In grades 1-2, the studies take place without capsules and without the possibility of maintaining a distance between the students. In orange and red localities, there will be no classes in the fifth-twelfth grades. This is despite the fact that more than half of the high schools and middle schools - 55% - have students defined as active corona patients and so are half of the primary schools.