Israel starts new school year as virus cases surge

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel reopened its schools Wednesday after the summer break but the coronavirus forced many students to stay home amid an infection surge fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Of the 2.4 million children due to attend educational institutions from kindergarten to high school, 250,000 were kept home on the first day of school, said the education ministry. Some 90,000 of them were infected with Covid or in quarantine, a ministry spokeswoman […]