The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday announced that 161,030 children under the age of 10 have been vaccinated in central Gaza during the first two days of the UN-led polio mass vaccination campaign.
The figure amounts to around a quarter of the total population which the agency aims to reach – some 640,000 children.
“We think that we will need another day tomorrow to actually wrap-up the central zone completely,” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
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Speaking from Gaza, he explained that day three of the campaign was continuing during the eight-hour daily pauses agreed by the Israeli military and Hamas fighters.
Each “humanitarian pause” is meant to last from 06:00 until 15:00 local time, with the possibility of adding an extra day if required.
The WHO medic said vaccination teams will shift to the larger southern zone on Thursday for another three days and most likely a fourth, before they turn to the northern zone. “Four weeks later the process will be repeated for the second round of vaccination,” he added.
Reaching the northern part of the Strip remains a concern, as WHO has tried to get missions to the north over the last two weeks to provide hospitals with essential medical supplies, according to the agency.
At least 90 per cent of Palestinian children need to be vaccinated for the campaign to be effective and to prevent the circulation of polio within Gaza and globally, WHO stressed.
