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 A Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman said 38,000 doses of the
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be used for inoculations as of Sunday,
while 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be stored "until
there is a scientific decision from the World Health Organization".
The WHO, one of the leaders of the COVAX programme, has said its
advisory panel was reviewing reports from several countries of
isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts
after administration of the AstraZeneca shots.
But the organisation appealed to nations on Monday not to pause
vaccination campaigns over the safety fears.
The vaccines shipped to Tel Aviv were the first sent by the WHO to
the Palestinians under the COVAX drive it set up with the GAVI
vaccine alliance to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations
globally.
Further COVAX shipments are expected in a few months.
A truck brought the initial shipment from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion
airport to the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank. About
a third of the doses have been allocated for Gaza.
An official in the office of the U.N. special coordinator for the
Middle East peace process said the vaccines "will be critical tools
in our fight against the pandemic and for socioeconomic recovery".
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 The Palestinian Authority hopes
to cover about 20% of the Palestinian population
through the COVAX initiative. It said the
initial doses from COVAX would be given to
health workers, cancer and kidney patients and
people over the age of 75. The
West Bank, where 3.1 million Palestinians live, has reported 146,359
coronavirus cases, with 1,667 deaths. Gaza, with a population of two
million, has registered more than 57,891 cases with 572 deaths.
Health officials in Gaza said some 8,500 people had received the
first dose of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. In the West Bank, about
5,000 have had their first shot.
About 90,000 of the 120,000 Palestinian labourers who have Israeli
work permits have been vaccinated by Israel, which has been a world
leader in its vaccination rollout.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta; Editing
by Nick Macfie; Writing by Jeffrey Heller)
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