Health Ministry report warns kids with COVID could be superspreaders

The Health Ministry report on COVID-19 infections among children and teenagers, presented today at the coronavirus cabinet, reportedly warns that kids are “infected, infect others and could be superspreaders.”

“Since most of them don’t display symptoms, it’s hard to detect a large portion of the children who are carrying the virus and they are likely to be a source of infection for others,” the ministry report says, according to the Haaretz daily.

The report finds that 8% of coronavirus tests conducted on children under 18 through September have returned positive, compared to 6% among adults. The finding was also confirmed in the country’s random nationwide sampling for coronavirus antibodies, which found that 7.1% of minors had antibodies, compared to 1.7%-4.8% among adults.

Netanyahu has called this finding “astonishing.”

Young children at a kindergarten in Yashresh on October 18, 2020, after being shut down during a monthlong national coronavirus lockdown. (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90)