IDF to call up reservists to conduct serological tests of students

17 August 2021, 6:50 pm

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A Magen David Adom worker takes blood for a serological test for COVID-19 from a child in the ultra-Orthodox town of Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz-Stone), outside Jerusalem, on August 9, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Benny Gantz approves calling up 6,000 reservists to assist the IDF Home Front Command in carrying out serological tests among children ahead of the opening of the school year.

Before school is slated to open nationwide on September 1, the government has vowed to test all 1.6 million kids in kindergarten and grades 1-6 to check if they have COVID-19 antibodies.

Those who are found to have recovered from the disease will receive a Green Pass that exempts them from quarantine if they are exposed to confirmed carriers.

The serological testing has already begun in Haredi communities, who started school last week.

In initial results, 20 percent of those tested — who were not previously confirmed to have recovered from COVID — were found to have antibodies.