Israel could wrap vaccinations before first Palestinian dose

Editor’s Note: Below is the latest installment in our COVID-19 newsletter. You can sign up here – mondoweiss.net/newsletters/.

The Latest:

  • 164,395 Palestinians tested positive for COVID-19; 146,601 recoveries; 1,707 deaths
  • 101,296 in the West Bank, 44,778 in Gaza; and 18,321 in East Jerusalem
  • 477,357 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel; 408,753 recoveries; 3,596 deaths

Over the last week the spread of COVID-19 has continued to slow in the West Bank, but in Gaza, where testing and hospital beds are limited, cases are still soaring. On New Year’s Eve, Gaza had it’s most fatal day, with 15 deaths reported. In early December, Gaza accounted for around a third of all active COVID-19 cases. Today, that figure has ballooned to 50% of all active cases in the occupied Palestinian territory. 

Despite the growth, there were 5% less tests administered to Palestinians in the last week. We’ve tracked on-going shortages of laboratory COVID-19 tests in this newsletter for months. In recent weeks, Gaza has twice run out of tests. The WHO’s latest situation report reveals in less than two weeks, Gaza will again be out of tests.

Relatives and health care workers and policemen perform funeral prayer during funeral ceremony of Palestinian Hamdan Qashlan who died of the coronavirus in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on December 20, 2020. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

Israel could vaccinate entire population before Palestinian administer a single dose

One story that is gaining traction is Israel’s robust vaccination program. Initially projecting around 65,000 vaccinations a day, Israel ramped up and supplied a staggering 150,000 per day. James North did a news round up noting most legacy newspapers praised the efficiency, but buried the lede. While Israel will have vaccinated two million by the end of January, Palestinians are not part of the distribution plan. 

Here’s North:

“You have to read all the way down to Paragraph 26 before the Times tells you the ugly truth: Israel is not inoculating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, even though the paper notes, as an afterthought, that ‘Legal experts and human rights activists said Israel was obliged to provide the Palestinians with vaccines.’”

On Thursday evening, Israel updated its vaccination timeline and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notified reporters:

“We will be the first country in the world to emerge from the coronavirus.”

In less than three months, the entire Israeli population of 9 million will have immunity, he said:

“The agreement that I have made with Pfizer will enable us to vaccinate all citizens of Israel over the age of 16 by the end of March and perhaps even earlier, meaning that we will vaccinate the entire relevant population and everyone who wants to will be able to be vaccinated.”

Meanwhile next door: Palestinian officials haven’t released a clear outline of their vaccination scheme. The first inoculations in the region likely won’t occur until after the spring. That timetable is our estimation based on the arrival time frame of vaccines to the GAVI COVAX AMX Facility, the landing site for vaccines purchased by the GAVI Alliance, a charitable foundation founded by seed funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999 that vaccinates children and at risk individuals in low-income countries. Vaccines will be procured in “early to mid 2021,” according to the WHO.

The big picture: This is poised to create a stark inequity, where Israelis will more or less resume normal life as the summer nears, while Palestinians will still be under some form of lockdown, with impacted hospitals, medical checkpoints, rising poverty and a contracting economy. 

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes