Covid-19 cases and positivity rates are rising in the occupied Palestinian territories, mostly from travelers who returned from abroad. Cases in Gaza are leading, and an increasing threat to the health care systems and hospitals is looming on the horizon, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Health Advisory Council reports.
While the omicron variant of the coronavirus spread to 57 countries this week, Palestinians announced that so far, “Palestine is free of any infection with the new mutation.”
Palestinians have reimposed a state of emergency in an attempt to prevent the spread of the omicron variant.
According to a release from Al Mezan, a Gaza-based human rights monitor, at the start of September “38% of essential drugs and 22% of medical disposables were at ‘zero stock’” in Gaza.
2020 was the worst year for the Palestinian economy since 1995, and the pandemic is only part of the picture. Settler violence peaked, and Gaza’s economy was already years into a massive contraction.
As COVID-19 testing finally increased in Palestine over the last month so did the number of positive cases and deaths.
Health officials have now mandated vaccines for government employees and students, and are offering up to $200 in prize money to encourage taking the jab among skeptics.
Anti-vaccination and anti-masking advocates are circulating misleading and false claims about inoculation and infection rates in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.