Tunisia and Palestinian Territories to receive first Covid vaccines from Covax scheme

A Palestinian medical worker handles test samples in the West Bank  

Credit: AFP/AFP

Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories will be the first in the Middle East to benefit from Covid vaccines supplied by the global Covax scheme, it emerged this week, as Palestinian leaders said they would begin administering jabs within a fortnight. 

The World Health Organisation, which leads the Covax system along with the health partnership Gavi, said more than 100,000 doses were on their way to the two areas. 

Tunisia is due to receive 37,000 doses from Pfizer and BioNTech, while the Palestinians will receive 93,600 doses. 

The WHO and Gavi set up Covax to provide fair access to coronavirus vaccinations around the world.

"The government will receive the first batch of 50,000 vaccines from several sources, the most important of which is through the International Covax Facility," Mohammed Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, said. He added that vaccinations would begin in the middle of February. 

It is understood that Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories are the first to receive Covax jabs in the region as they were among the first to submit applications and meet the requirements. 

A spokesman for Gavi, which takes the lead on negotiating Covax deals, said it could not immediately comment on individual countries but would provide an update this week. 

It came as the WHO urged other Middle Eastern countries and Western powers to step up their efforts to work with Covax as it warned that poorer nations risk being “left behind.”

Tunisian medical staff get ready to enter a coronavirus patient area at the intensive care unit of the Ariana Abderrahmen Mami hospital in the city of Ariana

Credit: AFP

Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region, said there were still “significant gaps” in vaccine procurement. 

"Until the pharmaceutical companies and the wealthier countries fully resource COVAX, which is the mechanism that we have set up to distribute the vaccines to the poorer countries, those countries are going to be left behind," he said. 

"The availability and the finances aren’t at the level yet that they need to be. We’re well short," he added.

On Monday Palestinian leaders recorded a further 500 Covid infections in the West Bank and Gaza, along with 11 deaths, raising the total mortality rate to 1,840. 

“The Covid-19 situation in the occupied Palestinian territory remains dire,” said Dr Aimee Shalan, the chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, which operates in the West Bank and Gaza. 

“The recent spike in cases pushed the Palestinian healthcare system close to collapse, particularly in Gaza. Medical Aid for Palestinians’ partners are also reporting rising rates of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity which has triggered a surge in childhood malnutrition as the crisis enters its second year.”

Israel has previously faced criticism from human rights groups for not sharing its supplies of vaccines with the Palestinians, though this week the Jewish state reportedly sent 2,000 doses to Palestinian leaders. 

In Tunisia, where there have been 6,800 deaths, officials recorded 1,160 new cases and a further 48 deaths during the same period. 

According to Reuters, the Palestinians are due to receive around 95,000 doses in the coming weeks, including the Israeli and Covax doses, though this would only cover around two per cent of their population.