Israel has agreed to a daily ceasefire in the Gaza Strip starting Sunday for a polio vaccination campaign, according to the United Nations. Fighting in three parts of the coastal strip is to cease from morning to afternoon for three consecutive days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Gaza, Rik Peeperkorn, referred to a commitment by the Israeli authority Cogat, which is responsible for Palestinian affairs.
90 percent of children should be vaccinated
“It was agreed that the campaign would be implemented in phases over three days. We will start on September 1 and start for three days in the central Gaza Strip, followed by the southern Gaza Strip and then the northern Gaza Strip,” Peeperkorn said. A fourth day may be needed in each region to reach the minimum 90 percent of children needed. The daily ceasefire begins at 6:00 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m.
Polioviruses discovered in wastewater
After the discovery of poliovirus in wastewater, the United Nations decided to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in the Gaza Strip against the virus in two rounds of vaccinations. Vaccines for 1.25 million people have already been transported to the coastal strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing. In order to administer the doses, UN officials had called for a ceasefire for polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children in the war zone after almost eleven months of war.
Since the war began after the Hamas terrorist attack on the Israeli border area on October 7 last year, many babies in the Gaza Strip have not been able to be vaccinated. Poor sanitary conditions in the coastal strip, where large numbers of internally displaced people are often forced to live in cramped quarters and clean water is scarce, could contribute to the rapid spread of the disease.
Source: Krone
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