UN: 87,000 children vaccinated against polio in central Gaza
Gaza (Quds News Network)- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said 87,000 children in the central Gaza Strip received the first dose of a polio vaccine as the inoculation drive continues for a second day amid a temporary ‘pause’ in Israeli assaults in the targeted area.
“Efforts are ongoing to provide children with this key vaccine, but what they need most is a ceasefire now,” the agency said in a post on X.
The first phase of the polio vaccination campaign kicked off on Sunday morning in the central Gaza Strip. The three-day vaccination campaign aims to reach some 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10. The move comes after the first polio case in 25 years in Gaza was discovered this month.
Israel has agreed to pause its military offensive in Gaza to allow health workers to administer the vaccines, UN officials have said.
Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territory, said on Thursday that the three pauses will take place from 6am to 3pm (03:00 to 12:00 GMT) and last for three days each in different areas of Gaza, beginning on Sunday. The pauses are unrelated to the continuing ceasefire negotiations.
There are fears that the virus could spread quickly due to poor sanitation conditions and overcrowding in Gaza’s camps, which are now sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
