Palestine received 38 thousand doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 24 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, RAMALLAH – Palestine received the first package of Covid-19 vaccine from Covax on Wednesday (17/3). It is hoped that this will help the Palestinians carry out the vaccination campaign in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The vaccine from Covax landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Then they were transported by truck to Ramallah. A spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health revealed that they received 38 thousand doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 24 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will begin to be used in the vaccination program on Sunday (21/3). Meanwhile AstraZeneca will be kept until there is a scientific decision from the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is currently reviewing reports of AstraZeneca side effects from several countries. This follows a case of blood clots in a number of patients who have received the vaccine.
One-third of the Covax vaccine has been allocated to Gaza. Health officials in Gaza said about 8,500 residents there had received the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia. Meanwhile in the West Bank, there are 5,000 residents who have also received the first injection of Sputnik V.
Palestinians hope to vaccinate 20 percent of the population using the vaccine package from Covax. So far the West Bank, which is home to 3.1 million Palestinians, has reported 146,359 cases of Covid-19. The region has registered 1,667 deaths.
Meanwhile, Gaza, with a population of two million, has recorded 57,891 cases of Covid-19. A total of 572 residents there died due to being infected with the corona virus.
Regarding Covax, it is a WHO-led program. Its goal is to provide vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
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