Palestine will receive tens of thousands of coronavirus vaccines starting this month, pending agreements with manufacturers and regulatory approvals, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Monday.
The announcement comes a day after Israel indicated that it agreed to transfer 5,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Palestinian community in order to immunize medical personnel on the front lines of the virus.
Israel conducts one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world after securing millions of doses from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna.
Human rights groups say Israel is responsible, as an invading power, for providing vaccines to the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli government denies having such an obligation and claims that it will give priority to its own citizens. The Palestinian Authority has not publicly requested vaccines from Israel and claims they are seeking their own supplies elsewhere.
On Monday, the WHO announced that Palestine would receive 37,440 doses of the coronavirus from Pfizer-BioNTech by mid-February, a plan “subject to approval of supply agreements with manufacturers.” Such doses would be destined for first-line health personnel.
It added that the Palestine would receive between 240,000 and 405,600 additional doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine between mid-to-late February, a deal that is subject to approval for emergency use by the health organization itself.
The vaccines are provided through COVAX, a WHO program to help poor countries acquire coronavirus vaccines.
For its part, Israel’s cabinet voted in favor of extending a lockdown on its territory for at least five more days as it struggles to curb an acute spread of the virus.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early Monday that restrictions that have kept non-essential businesses and schools closed for the past month will remain in effect until at least Friday. The authorities will maintain the ban on almost all departure and arrival flights for another week.
The cabinet will meet again on Wednesday to determine whether to extend the measures longer.
Israel, a country of about 9.3 million people, has been reporting an average of nearly 6,000 new coronavirus infections a day. About 4,800 people have died from COVID-19.