The health authorities in the Gaza Strip have started the vaccination together with the UN and other organizations on Saturday, Moussa Abed in the Ministry of Health told the news agency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had previously said that the vaccination campaign would start on Sunday. The aim is to have 640,000 children under the age of ten vaccinated.
But the campaign got off to a symbolic start on Saturday when a vaccination team at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis gave the first vaccines to children in attendance, before the vaccination campaign really starts on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Earlier this week, Israel agreed to so-called humanitarian breaks in three areas of the Gaza Strip to vaccinate children against polio. There is a total of three days with an 8-9 hour break in the fighting per day.
Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Yousef Abu Al-Reesh told Reuters that health teams should try to cover as many areas as possible during the limited time they have at their disposal. But he emphasizes that only a comprehensive ceasefire can guarantee that a sufficient number of children are vaccinated.
– If the international community really wants this campaign to succeed, a ceasefire must be put in place, he told journalists at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
Last weekend, the UN delivered 1.2 million doses of polio vaccine to Gaza, where, for the first time in 25 years, polio infection was recently detected in a baby.
#Polio #vaccination #underway #Gaza
2024-09-02 03:46:11
