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July 17th, 2021 
Awake Goy Palestinian employees of the Red Crescent prepare to work during a lockdown to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on August 30, 2020. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)
The Latest:
- 344,345 Palestinians tested positive for COVID-19; 228,902 recoveries; 3,853 deaths
- Of those who tested positive 200,021 live in the West Bank, 115,483 live in Gaza, and 28,841 live in East Jerusalem
- 849,654 Israelis tested positive for COVID-19; 837,394 recoveries; 6,443 deaths
As “more and more cases of the infectious Delta variant” are confirmed, the World Health Organization said Thursday it “fears that the fourth wave of COVID-19 is around the corner” for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, reversing the first major decrease in new cases that had occurred over the spring.
From mid-April to this week, roughly 11% of the Palestinian population has been vaccinated. That breaks down to, 560,195 people, of whom 466,522 in the West Bank and 93,673 in Gaza.
While the vaccination rate is woefully under the target 70%, in recent weeks new infections plateaued in the West Bank, with only 150 active cases. The positivity rate on new laboratory tests, which decreased by 20% in May, is now only around .5%.
We’ve been using the positivity rate as a weather vane to determine which way the needle is moving on the spread of the coronavirus in the region. The United Nations has consistently warned of limited testing masking a wider outbreak. Over the last week lab tests further dropped by 13%, according to the WHO’s latest situation report. In hard numbers that means there were slightly less than 20,000 COVID-19 tests processed for a population of close to 5 million. Not everyone who is sick is given a swab, but it’s a good indication that of those who are swabbed, only half a percent tested positive.
The big picture: The problem is, one positive case with the Delta mutation spreads to around 8 people, more than twice that of earlier iterations of the virus. Already it has reached more than 100 countries. We found Al Jazeera’s interactive map useful for visualizing the reach.
What’s more, while most vaccines on the market provide some protection against Delta, it does not provide as robust of coverage as it does for the the earlier strain, dubbed Alpha. The WHO found, “Two weeks after receiving a second dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to provide 79% protection against infection with the Delta variant, compared with 92% protection against the Alpha variant.” This means previous models of how quickly vaccination campaigns can curb the spread are off. And, this variant is associated with different symptoms, sicker patients, and a doubled risk of hospitalization.
Coca-Cola factory employees receive a dose of Pfizer COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine, in the industrial zone east of Gaza City on July 11, 2021. Photo by Omar Ashtawy
Israel starts booster shots
In Israel, where 5 million people are already vaccinated, health officials have brought back a mask mandate and are now jabbing high-risk people with a third, or booster, shot.
Red Crescent emergency responders disinfect ambulances in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on August 30, 2020. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)
When ambulances don’t come
This week journalist Ahmed Al-Sammak reported from Gaza how patients with COVID-19 were sent home from the hospital in May, during the most severe military escalation with Israel in years. He spoke to one couple who contracted symptoms in the middle of Israel’s assault, and navigated airstrikes and blown out highways to get to the ER.
Once at the hospital, Imad Alhour and Imran Namroti were first told they weren’t sick enough to get a COVID-19 test.
Al-Sammak reports:
“He refused to take any swabs from me and my wife and told us that they had only done this for extremely serious cases,” Alhour said. ” I called my friend who works in the hospital and he helped us and took swabs.”
Their rapid test results “were supposed to take 30 minutes but it took 90 minutes because the hospital was full of people with injuries and the doctors were too busy,” he said.
Although the results were positive, after six hours the couple was released and sent home. The hospital was overwhelmed with injuries and critical COVID-19 patients and did not have the capacity to further treat them.
In Gaza, where the vaccination rate is hovering around 4% of the population there are only 32 vaccination sites for slightly more than 2 million people.
If you haven’t had a chance to check our latest series, the Gaza Diaries, be sure to check out these stirring accounts of how Palestinians coped during the escalation in May, and its aftermath. We have curated a collection of essays and first-person accounts that reflect the misery, resilience, and even joy experienced during the 11-day assault.
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