The Palestinian Health Ministry began administering the first doses of coronavirus vaccines it received from the global COVAX initiative to health care workers and older residents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday.
The World Health Organization and its partners running the United Nations COVAX program delivered 61,400 vaccines to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, whereas 21,300 were shipped to the blockaded, Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The vaccine shipment is a boost to the West Bank, where the PA has struggled to obtain vaccines as the infection rate surged in recent weeks. Until now it had only secured 10,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and 2,000 shots from Israel for the roughly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
By contrast, Gaza, which has been under blockade since Hamas took control of the area in 2007, has received more than 80,000 vaccines.
In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the vaccines would go to medical workers and older people. “We are here to start the preventive vaccination drive for our people against the coronavirus,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Even with the arrival of the vaccines, the Palestinian areas lag far behind Israel, which has vaccinated some 80% of its adult population.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines are the first distributed by COVAX in the Palestinian territories.
