HMO: Just 1% of Israeli parents with kids 5-11 seek medical advice after COVID shot

Just one percent of parents with children ages 5-11 who received the COVID-19 vaccine sought medical advice or treatment for their kids due to side effects, according to a report Friday, two weeks after Israel began its vaccine drive for that age group.

Some 70% of parents responding to a Maccabi survey reported their children had only light pain at the injection site. A third of respondents said there was no pain at the injection site, according to the report.

Only 1% of those contacted their family doctors to get medical advice or care following the vaccine dose.

The survey also found that younger children experienced fewer side effects, with weakness and fatigue reported by 7% of 5-year-olds, compared to 14% of 11-year-olds. Headaches were reported by 5% of children aged 5 compared to 10% of children aged 11, according to the network.

Maccabi, one of Israel’s leading HMOs, said 20% of kids 5-11 it insures were inoculated or have booked a vaccination appointment for the coming days.

“The results of the survey show that the vaccine is effective and safe,” Maccabi CEO Sigal Dadon-Levy said.

Close to 100,000 young children so far have been vaccinated in Israel, according to Health Ministry figures published Friday.

The child vaccination campaign has kicked off amid concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant. Israel has so far confirmed 35 cases and is examining 52 other infections suspected of being caused by the mutated coronavirus strain, which the World Health Organization has categorized as a “variant of concern” following its initial detection in South Africa last month.

Thursday saw 610 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Israel. The numbers have gone up and down in recent days but there has been no clear rise in daily infections.

Still, the virus reproduction number, R, was given as 1.1, having steadily climbed from 1 over the past week. This means that on average, every patient infects more than one other person. Any value above 1 shows that the pandemic is growing.

A Hebrew University report submitted on Thursday argues that the rise in pandemic metrics is clear, and says that in the past week it has been spreading — for the first time since the fourth wave — across all age groups and societal groups.

The health experts said they were uncertain of the cause, and did not necessarily blame Omicron. They instead pointed to a possible decline in immunity, school infections, and other possible causes.

Experts are so far not seeing a major spike in hospitalizations that had been feared as the strain emerged.

The number of serious cases has gone down, and on Thursday went below 100 for the first time in over four months.

According to Health Ministry data, there were 92 people whose condition was defined as serious as of Friday afternoon, with 55 of them on ventilators.

The death toll stood at 8,210, with no one succumbing to the disease during the previous four days, the ministry said.