One-third of the doses were administered 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 distribution campaign, in a rise in inoculations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is far behind the Israeli campaign.
The Palestinian health ministry said 38,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be used for inoculations on Sunday, and 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would be stored “pending a scientific decision by the World Health Organization”.
The WHO, one of the leaders of the COVAX program, said its advisory panel was reviewing reports from several countries of isolated cases of stroke, blood clots and low platelet count following the administration of the AstraZeneca shots.
But the group appealed to countries Monday not to stop vaccination campaigns over the safety fears.
The vaccines sent to Tel Aviv were the first to be sent by the WHO to the COVAX-driven Palestinians set up by the GAVI vaccine alliance to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines have equal access to across the globe.
More COVAX shipments are expected in a few months.
A lorry took the first passengers from Ben Gurion Airport at Tel Aviv to the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank. About a third of the doses were administered for the Gaza Strip.
An official in the UN’s special coordinator’s office for the Middle East peace process said the vaccines will be “a vital tool in our fight against pandemics and for socio-economic recovery”.
The Palestinian Authority hopes to cover about 20 percent of the Palestinian population through the COVAX campaign. They said the initial doses of COVAX would be given to health workers, cancer and kidney patients and people over 75.
Palestinian authorities have come under fire recently following an attack over their distribution scheme, amid allegations that VIPs and ministers have been given priority.
Several Palestinian human rights groups and civil society have urged an investigation into the PA vaccination program, saying it was not obvious.
The proprietary West Bank, where 3.1 million Palestinians live, has reported 146,359 cases of coronavirus, with 1,667 deaths. The Gaza Strip, with a population of two million, has recorded more than 57,891 cases with 572 deaths.
Health officials in Gaza said about 8,500 people had received the first dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. In the West Bank, around 5,000 have received their first sightings.
Approximately 90,000 of the 120,000 Palestinian workers with Israeli work permits have been vaccinated by Israel, which has been a world leader in the spread of the vaccine.
Israeli officials have said that, under the Oslo peace agreements, the PA health ministry is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians.
Critics, however, have accused Israel of “apartheid vaccination”, saying it is up to property power to protect the economically and politically controlled Palestinian people.