20 Thousand Doses Of Israel's First Vaccine Injected Into Palestinians

JAKARTA - The Palestinian Authority launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination for health workers after the country received 20,000 doses of the Moderna-made vaccine from Israel on Monday, February 1.

Health workers treating COVID-19 patients and those working in intensive care units (ICU) are vaccinated at Hugo Chavez Hospital, Ramallah, West Bank. Ramallah is the seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA) government.

"This is a good step because (vaccination, red) is crucial to protect medical personnel who are in direct contact with COVID-19 patients at close range and they (health workers, ed) are at risk of contracting it," said Director of Hugo Chavez Hospital, Bassil Bawatneh.

Israel plans to increase distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to Palestinians by three thousand doses. Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila, when opening the mass vaccination program, said his party would receive three thousand doses of the COVID-19 Sputnik V vaccine made by Russia's Gamaleya Institute in the next few days.

Palestine will also receive 37 thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the global vaccine procurement cooperation (COVAX). Alkaila said a number of doses of the vaccine would be sent to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The Gaza Strip is the territory of Hamas, an armed group and rivals of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Health Minister estimates that the new vaccinations will be completed within the next few months.

People over 60 years of age or those with chronic diseases will be the priority vaccine recipients after health workers. If the vulnerable groups have been vaccinated, the government will launch vaccinations for the general public, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a written statement.

Several human rights organizations have previously urged Israel to make sure Palestinians also receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This is because Israel since 1967 has forcibly occupied the West Bank, an area inhabited by Palestinians.

Israel to this day still ranks first for the country with the world's highest per capita vaccine rate. Several Israeli officials have said that the responsibility for procuring vaccines should be borne by the Palestinian Ministry of Health as an institution under the Palestinian Authority.

There are at least 101,221 positive cases of COVID-19 in the West Bank, a home to 3.1 million Palestinians. Of the total positive patients, 1,271 of them died. Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, a place inhabited by two million Palestinians, there have been more than 51,000 positive cases and 523 of them have died from COVID-19.