First batch of COVAX-supplied vaccines arrives for Palestinians

A third of the doses have been allocated for the Gaza Strip after vaccines were transferred from Tel Aviv to Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the global COVAX sharing initiative, in a boost to inoculations in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip which lag far behind Israel’s campaign. A Palestinian health ministry spokesman said 38,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be used for inoculations as of Sunday, while 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would be stored “until there is a scientific decision from the World Health Organization”. The WHO, one of the leaders of the COVAX programme, has said its advisory panel was reviewing reports from several countries of isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts after administration of the AstraZeneca shots.