UNRWA chief confirms Polio vaccination in Gaza reaches 90% percent
The head of the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday that 90% of children in Gaza received polio vaccinations. The next step was to take every measure to ensure that hundreds of thousands of kids received the second round of polio vaccine towards the end of the month.
The polio immunization campaign, which targeted to administer the vaccine to approximately 640,000 children under ten years of age in Gaza, started on September 1, posed significant risks to UNRWA and partners implementing the campaign in the context of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. This came after the WHO last month confirmed a case of partial paralysis of a baby due to type 2 poliovirus in the Palestinian territory, which is the first time in 25 years.
Over 446,000 children in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip were vaccinated ahead of the last week of August before the campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in the northern part of the Gaza Strip started on September 10 despite access hindrances, forced evacuations, and lack of fuel.
The first phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is complete, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, its chief Philippe Lazzarini, who explained that 90% of the enclave’s children had been given a first dose.
Overall, the parties to the conflict respected the different intervals necessary according to the rules to make “humanitarian pauses.” The minority indicated that assistance could be delivered unabated when political will existed.The next target will be distributing the second share to children before the end of September, he said on X. Meanwhile, the Gaza enclave’s health ministry says an attack on Gaza killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and destroyed a good portion of the Strip.
