On 21 June, Israel’s Ministry of Health recommended that all individuals aged 12–15 be vaccinated against COVID-19 — making the nation one of the few that have so far approved vaccinations for younger adolescents. The decision came in response to a trend that many countries with high rates of vaccination are experiencing: an ever-increasing proportion of new infections are in younger age groups (see ‘Trending younger’).

Israel’s swift vaccination campaign — which has now reached more than 85% of the adult population — saw case numbers drop to around a dozen a day in early June. But later that month, cases began to rise to more than 100 a day, many of in people under 16, leading the government to open up vaccinations to all teenagers.

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