On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Israel had agreed to a series of “humanitarian cease-fires” of three days each in the central, southern and northern Gaza Strip, in order to start from tomorrow Sunday the campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio.
Due to damaged roads and displaced populations, the United Nations has indicated that an extra day may be needed for vaccinations in each area, and the agreement provides that humanitarian ceasefires – expected to take place every day from early morning until early evening – then extended. According to the UN, “at least 90% coverage is needed in each phase of the campaign to stop the epidemic.”
“Teams from the Ministry of Health, UNRWA and NGOs started the polio vaccination campaign today Saturday,” said Dr. Musa Abed, head of first aid services at the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health.
A member of a humanitarian organization told AFP that the health ministry had started administering the first vaccines today, but that the vaccination campaign would take place on a larger scale on Sunday.
On August 23, the WHO confirmed that at least one infant was paralyzed after contracting polio. This was the first case in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.
The UN announced that it has distributed about 1.2 million doses of the nOPV2 vaccine. The second dose of the vaccine should be given four weeks after the first.
Parents stressed to AFP that they would take their children to be vaccinated, especially for fear of epidemics in the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people, almost all of whom have been displaced since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
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