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March 20th, 2021 
Awake Goy The latest:
- 247,641 Palestinians tested positive for COVID-19; 221,221 recoveries; and 2,629 deaths
- Of those who tested positive, 161,495 live in the West Bank, 58,417 live in Gaza, and 27,729 live in East Jerusalem
- 826,609 Israeli tested positive for COVID-19; 800,728 recoveries 6,073 deaths 8,731,727 vaccine doses have been administered recoveries
For the third week in a row Palestinian hospitals are overwhelmed with many reporting a 115% capacity in ICUs, as the West Bank’s third wave continues to tax the local health system. Deaths hit a record high, with 45 dying in the last 48 hours.
Palestinian workers from the Red Crescent Society begin to equip a treatment center for COVID-19 patients, in cooperation with the municipality of al-Bireh near the West Bank City of Ramallah, on March 18, 2021. (Photo: Mohammed Abu Zaid/WAFA/APA Images)
Our correspondent Yumna Patel reports:
“Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said on Monday that hospitals in the West Bank had exceeded 100% capacity, describing the situation as ‘very dangerous,’ and that the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients and those in need of ventilators were steadily increasing.
According to al-Kaila, a significant portion of the new cases of COVID-19 that are being detected in the West Bank are being traced to the newer, more viral and more deadly variants of the coronavirus, including the British variant. “
The big picture: Despite the rise in hospitalizations–“41% increase in ventilator use over the last week and a 23% increase at ICUs, which were already at capacity last week,” according to the WHO–the rate of new cases has finally started to slow. Over the seven days, there was an overall 14% increase in new cases. While that means the curve is going up, it is a much more controllable figure than the over 100% new cases we saw two weeks ago in certain West Bank cities.
Officials tightened lockdown measures in the West Bank, on Monday shuttering all business for the next week with the exception of pharmacies and bakeries.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are days away from launching their national vaccination campaign where the general public will be able to get COVID-19 shots for the first time. Until now, vaccines have near exclusively been available to healthcare workers. The first tier will include people over 75 and those with chronic conditions.
Vaccines have been arriving from a variety of sources. The GAVI Alliance, a global vaccine program that donates to low-income countries, procured a combined 60,000 doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca that were delivered to the West Bank and Gaza this week. Another 60,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V, which were donated by the UAE, have already been shipped to Gaza.
From the lab to the arm jab
We published an interview with UNICEF head of supply chain in the oPt, Giorgio Figus, who explained the complicated process of moving the doses at ultra-cold temperatures from the U.S., to Israel, and then onto their final destinations in Gaza and the West Bank. According to a test run last year, there was a five-day time window in which the vaccines needed to reach local cold storage, to ensure warming temperatures don’t spoil the doses (he cautioned us, it a lot less dramatic and coordinated that it appears at first blush):
“‘It was five days in total from the moment the manufacturer started to prepare the boxes,’ Figus said of a test-run UNICEF conducted last year with diagnostic kits. ‘I think, by the moment it arrived at Ben Gurion, we still had 48 hours to bring them to the final destination.’
If at this point there is any concern the vaccines won’t make it from the tarmac to fridges in the West Bank and Gaza, the ice can be swapped out at the airport. ‘I’ve done it myself in the Central African Republic,’ Figus said.
‘You open the box, you exchange the ice packs, you put it back and that’s it. Anyway, you’ve got always a temperature logger inside of these boxes. So you can always afterward check if the cold chain has been maintained,’ he continued. “
Physicians anxiously await wider access to vaccines in Gaza
In Gaza, Tareq Hajjaj spoke with a pulmonologist who was days away from receiving his first shot. Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Mohammed Abdelmanem, 47, tested positive for COVID-19, along with his spouse and four children. “The only option we had then was to quarantine and take some pain-killers,” Abdelmanem told Hajjaj:
“‘The kids got through it much easier than my wife who was in poor condition,’ Abdelmenem recalled. ‘When we got infected, we separated inside the home, and those were the most painful moments.‘
‘For months, I could not go to see my parents, they live in the same building but I stayed away from them,’ Abdelmanem said.
‘Even after my family and I recovered,’ Abdelmanem said, ‘I kept away from my older parents. I did not feel safe at all over the past year and it was an unbearable year, but I thank God that we are still alive.‘”
That’s it for this week. Stay safe and we’ll see you next Friday.
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