Palestine to receive 100,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China

Ramallah (QNN)- Palestine will very soon receive 100,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Speaking to Voice of Palestine, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh announced that the Health Ministry would very soon receive the batch of 100,000 Sinopharm doses, which will help to start the mass vaccination campaign in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Al-kaileh expressed her gratitude to the Palestinian ambassador to China Fariz Mehdawi and his Chinese counterpart to Palestine Guo Wei for their efforts in this regard.

She added that Palestine would also soon receive COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX mechanism following high-profile contacts with the World Health Organization, while noting that the ministry has entered into a contract with global manufactures to purchase more vaccines.

To date, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, there have been nearly 2427 deaths related to COVID-19 among Palestinians in the OPT since the beginning of the pandemic, 562 of them in the Gaza strip. 229,065 Palestinians have been infected with the virus.

Under the fourth Geneva Convention, ‘Israel’, as an occupying power, is obligated to provide Palestinians with the vaccines, as the occupying forces are responsible for providing healthcare to the population of the occupied area, however, it refused to give Palestinians access to the vaccine.

In January, ‘Israel’ agreed to transfer only 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Palestinians to immunize just the front-line medical workers, this was the first time that ‘Israel’ confirmed the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinians.

Later, ‘Israel’ allowed the Palestinians to send the first shipment of 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines donated by Russia to the besieged Gaza Strip, after it banned the entry of the shipment.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 2,000 doses of the Russian ‘Sputnik V’ vaccine were supposed to enter Gaza Strip, however, ‘Israel’, allowed the entry of only 1000 doses, which has a population of about 2 million.