Some 40,000 vaccines are on their way to the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah top official and main political rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, announced Wednesday.
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The vaccines were sponsored by the United Arab Emirates, where Dahlan has been residing since his expulsion from Ramallah in 2011.
The Sputnik V vaccines are expected to arrive in the strip via Egypt on Thursday. Gaza had previously received 20,000 doses, so together with the inoculations donated by the UAE, it will be able to vaccinate 30,000 of its residents.
In a Facebook post, Dahlan explained that the vaccines would be administered to healthcare staff and the at-risk population.
According to Wafa, the official Palestinian newspaper, in the past 24 hours, 2,331 Gazans tested positive for the coronavirus, and 27 died.
Palestinian sourced reported Wednesday that a top official from Dahlan's Democratic Reform Bloc, Ghassan Jadallah, has visited Gaza. Several of Dahlan's associates have been returning to the strip to prepare for the upcoming Palestinian elections scheduled for May 22.
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