Israel, Hamas agree to pauses for Gaza polio vaccinations: WHO

CGTN Europe

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.  #Polio #vaccine #WHO #Gaza #Israel

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00:00There's some eager people waiting to ask you questions.

00:03A two-round polio vaccination campaign will actually start on the 1st of September

00:11in Gaza Strip. During each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health,

00:16in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA, and partners, will provide two drops of the

00:26novel oral polio vaccine type 2, the so-called NOPV2, to more than 640,000 children under 10

00:34years of age. What we welcome, we have a preliminary commitment for area-specific

00:41humanitarian pauses during the campaign, and we call on all parties to pause, of course,

00:48the fighting to allow children and families to safely access health facilities and community

00:54outreach workers to get the children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination.

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