Palestine seeks to procure 2 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses from Britain

2021-01-05 01:35:43 GMT2021-01-05 09:35:43(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

RAMALLAH, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Palestine announced on Monday that it has been in contact with the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to procure 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine.

The vaccine, according to a Palestinian government press statement, was co-developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

"The Palestinian Ministry of Health seeks to bring the vaccine as soon as possible to be able to impart immunity to the populations in the Palestinian territories," said the statement.

"The only choice we have right now is to abide by the precautionary measures until we receive our share of the vaccine soon," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye was quoted by the statement as saying.

Earlier on Monday, Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said that Palestine recorded 1,009 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases to 160,043 in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

"Out of the new infections, 361 cases have been recorded in the Gaza Strip," al-Kaila told reporters, adding that the ministry recorded 20 new fatalities from the virus, raising the total number of deaths to 1,609.

Meanwhile, Kamal al-Shakhra, a spokesman to the ministry, told a news briefing that the rate of infections decreased to 20 percent of the total daily checkups in the West Bank and to 18 percent in the Gaza Strip.

"The occupancy rate of beds in the hospitals has reached about 60 percent," he said, adding that 124 patients are admitted in intensive care units, including 30 on ventilators. Enditem

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