Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is appealing to the international community to deliver on promised vaccines against COVID-19.
His office says the prime minister on Tuesday urged friendly countries and companies, as well as the World Health Organization, to “fulfill their responsibilities to us.”
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Palestinian pharmacist receives Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Bethlehem city on the West Bank
(Photo: AP)
Shtayyeh says the delivery of the United Nations is expected to be delayed this month through COVAX, the WHO-backed program to help poor countries.
The virus has spread through the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Israel has come under heavy international criticism for administering its own population vaccine without doing the same to Palestinians, despite sending about 5,000 vaccine doses to the PA from their own stock store.
And while Israel this week began vaccinating Palestinian workers working in the country, that effort will cover only a small percentage of the estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel says, under the Oslo Accords, it is not responsible for vaccinating the Palestinian numbers in those areas. Human rights groups say Israel remains a proprietary power with responsibility for supporting the Palestinians.
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Medication prepares to deliver coronavirus vaccine to former Palestinian health minister Jawad Tibi
(Photo: Reuters)
Meanwhile, the PA leadership has come under heavy criticism for its decision to send some of the small stock of coronavirus vaccines to senior officials, football players and others, despite its reiterate that his first vaccinations would go to medical staff and elderly patients, who are most at risk of serious illness or death.
This controversy has been a long-standing concern about corruption within the PA as it struggles to deal with the growing behavior.