Chicago – August 30, 2024
Israel’s military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s senior official for the Palestinian territories.
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
“From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage,” Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn.
“At least 90% of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent international spread of polio,” Ryan said.
The WHO confirmed on Aug. 23 that one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
