The Palestinian Authority has confirmed that it sent certain doses of COVID-19 vaccine for medical staff to VIPs, as critics have said, but said this was a fraction small amount of inoculations.
A PA health ministry statement said Tuesday that 10 percent of the 12,000 doses it received were given to the Palestinian national football team, government ministers, top guards and members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee. A further 200 doses went to Jordan’s royal court, following a request from Amman.
But he said the other 90 percent went to health workers handling COVID-19 cases in intensive care units and emergency departments, and health ministry staff.
The ministry’s statement came after criticism from several Palestinian human rights groups and civil society, which urged him to review the vaccination program, saying it was not obvious.
“The incoming information and testimonials indicate ongoing cases where several parties receive vaccinations, despite the principle of priority in dissemination,” the agencies said in a joint statement Monday.
Health worker prepares for vaccination of former Palestinian health minister Jawad Tibi in Gaza City [File: Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has long faced allegations of nepotism and cronyism. In a poll in December, 86 percent of Palestinians surveyed said they saw corrupt PA establishments.
However, defending its vaccination program, the health ministry said the vaccinated ministers and security officials were “in direct contact with the president and the prime minister”. They also said that some of those who received vaccinations were election officials while the football team was vaccinated because the players needed vaccination certificates to travel “to represent Palestine in a game”.
Social media users have launched the hashtag in Arabic #WhereIsTheVaccine.
Issa Amro, a prominent campaigner from Hebron, wrote on his Facebook page that the PA had failed to distribute the vaccine fairly.
“The scandal over the distribution of the vaccine to officials should be a reason for not choosing the list that represents the government,” he said, referring to the forthcoming parliamentary elections. due in May – first in 15 years.
“Shame on you, you have failed even in circulating the vaccine,” he said, referring to the PA.
Record high issues
In the controlled West Bank, coronavirus cases have been at an all-time high since the outbreak began, resulting in new lock-in measures.
“The revolution is very serious, and the situation itself is very serious, worse than in the beginning,” said Tayeb Zeineddin, who has worked at the Ramallah test center since the onset of the pandemic. spread. He said more than 1,000 people show up every day for exams.
The PA has reported on more than 130,000 cases in the West Bank since the uprising began, including at least 1,819 cases on Tuesday.
At least 1,510 people have died, and dozens are in intensive care. In Gaza, which is under 13-year siege by Israel and Egypt, authorities have reported more than 55,000 cases and at least 553 deaths.
The effects go far beyond the disease itself.
The World Bank estimates that the Palestinian economy traveled 11.5 percent in 2020, with tourism and restaurant sectors hit particularly hard. Unemployment in the West Bank has risen to 15 per cent this year, and an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians live in poverty, he said last month.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip, home to 5.2 million Palestinians, have received about 34,700 vaccine doses to date. These came from small donations from Israel and Russia in addition to 20,000 sent by the United Arab Emirates to Gaza.
The numbers are far behind Israel, which has vaccinated more than a third of the nine million people in one of the fastest outbreaks in the world.
Israeli officials have said that, under the Oslo peace agreements, the PA health ministry is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians.
But Palestinians have accused Israel of evading its duties as an occupying power by not including them in their inoculation program, saying vaccines from Israel should not be donated because Palestine is not a poor country but an area where Israel has complete economic and political control.