Palestine’s vaccine push

Islam News – For months, the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and in the blockaded Gaza Strip struggled to get Covid-19 vaccine doses. Now they have the shots, but disinformation and conspiracy theories have led to widespread hesitancy.

Only 37 percent of eligible West Bank residents and 18 percent in Gaza have received at least one dose, according to health officials.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas — the militant group that rules Gaza — have imposed vaccine mandates on public employees, despite reservations from human rights advocates.

In Gaza, private-sector employees whose work brings them into direct contact with the public must be vaccinated as well. In the West Bank, where the government is the largest employer, officials said that the number of vaccinations increased after the government order.

Cases: The number of new infections jumped significantly over the past week, reaching 868 in the West Bank on Thursday and 1,021 in Gaza on Friday, the highest single-day figures in months. The number of hospitalizations in both territories has roughly tripled in the past two weeks.

Source: The New York Times