STORY: Some 1.2 million vaccine doses have already been delivered to Gaza ahead of a September 1 campaign to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio, a WHO official said on Friday (August 30).
Some 400,000 additional doses are en route to the territory, said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.
Health authorities in the Gaza Strip confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years earlier this month.
The infection and subsequent partial paralysis of the nearly year-old Abdul-Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan has hastened plans for a mass vaccination campaign of children across the Palestinian enclave.
Three-day pauses in fighting in each of Gaza’s three zones have been agreed by Israel and Hamas to allow thousands of U.N. workers to administer vaccines.
“We reiterate our call for a ceasefire to enable the rebuilding of the health system, strengthening of the routine immunization,” said Peeperkorn.
