Palestine Refuses One Million Doses of Vaccine from Israel

Jerusalem, MINA – The Palestinian Authority (PA) has said it refuses to accept one million expiring vaccines from Israel.

Government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said on Friday, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh instructed the Health Minister to cancel the aid agreement, namely the initial delivery of Pfizer doses that failed to meet the requirements.

“The government refuses to accept a vaccine that is about to expire,” Melhem said, in a statement to the official WAFA news agency.

The vaccine deal, last week, comes amid high tensions between Tel Aviv and the Palestinians, with breaches of a fragile ceasefire that have seen Israeli jets bombard the impoverished enclave for the second time on Thursday night since the truce.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced on Friday that three people had died, 165 new coronavirus cases and 453 recoveries were recorded over the past 24 hours.

The ministry confirmed in its daily coronavirus epidemiological report that the coronavirus recovery rate was 97.8 percent while the active infection rate was 1.1 percent and the death rate was 1.1 percent from all infections.

It stated that the new infections were as follows: Jenin 5, al-Khalil 4, Tulkarm 1, Nablus 3, Ramallah 1, and Gaza Strip 151.

The ministry pointed out that there are 9 critically ill patients who have been admitted to the intensive care unit including 15 who have been placed on ventilators.

Regarding the vaccination campaign, the total people who received the corona vaccine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip reached 445,412 people including 270,000 people who had received two doses of the vaccine. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)