Israel has begun rolling out Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds, hoping to beat down a recent rise in coronavirus infections.

A fourth wave of infections that hit Israel in June began subsiding in September. But over the past two weeks the "R", or reproduction rate of the virus, that had remained below one for two months began climbing and has now crossed that threshold, indicating the virus could again be spreading exponentially.

Daily cases have also crept up over the past few days, with half the confirmed infections presently among children age 11 and younger.

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