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.
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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 Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took control of the area in 2007, has received more than 80,000 vaccines. Most of them were of the Russian variety and have come from a rival of President Mahmoud Abbas based in the United Arab Emirates.
