Palestinians to receive Russian COVID-19 vaccine within month

The Palestinian Authority will receive a first shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine within the coming month, according to a statement by the Russian Direct Investment Fund on Monday.The fund said that the PA’s Health Ministry approved the vaccine for use in the Palestinian-controlled territories.“The vaccine was registered under the emergency use authorization procedure without additional clinical trials,” the release said. It did not indicate the total number of vaccines that were to be delivered, but said that full delivery was planned for the first quarter of 2021.The news comes against the backdrop of statements by PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who said last week that the authority has signed contracts with four companies that produce vaccines against the coronavirus.In opening remarks at the weekly meeting of the PA cabinet in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said that the vaccines will arrive within the next two months.The vaccinations will first be given to health teams, and then to patients and the elderly, Shtayyeh said. He did not name the companies that have agreed to provide the Palestinians with the vaccines, though the RDIF later revealed that Sputnik V is among the vaccines.

Palestinian officials had in recent weeks made conflicting statements about the arrival of vaccines to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Initially, Ministry of Health officials said they expected to receive millions of Russian-produced doses by the end of December.Last week, PA officials said they were hoping to receive the British-produced AstraZeneca vaccine at the beginning of February.On Saturday, PA Minister of Health Mai Alkaila announced that no date has been set for the arrival of the first doses of vaccine to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.PA officials have also made contradictory statements as to whether or not they had asked Israel to supply them with the vaccines.Shtayyeh revealed that there was a “slight decline” in the number of coronavirus infections among Palestinians due to adherence to precautionary measures imposed by the PA government.“We are happy that on top of Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, Sputnik V will now also be present in the Middle East,” said the fund’s CEO Kirill Dmitriev. “This will allow us to further combine forces for a quicker joint victory over the coronavirus infection by guaranteeing access to an effective and safe vaccine for more countries and their people.” Israel has not yet approved Sputnik V for use in the country, although Hadassah-University Medical Center signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase 1.5 million doses of the vaccine and has applied to have it registered by the Health Ministry. So far, Israel, like most Western countries, has opted for alternative vaccines, saying the Russian trials were sparse and it was hard to interpret the data. RDIF claims that Sputnik V shows more than 90% efficacy and provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19. Source