Approximately 90% of Gaza’s population had been vaccinated against polio during the first quarter of 2024, IDF International Spokesperson Nadav Shoshani posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
According to Shoshani, who cited the World Health Organization (WHO), a significant majority of civilians in the Gaza Strip were vaccinated against the highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects children and spreads through contaminated food, water, or contact with an infected person.
All You Need to Know About Our Efforts to combat polio in Gaza: According to the @WHO, about 90% of the population in Gaza was vaccinated against polio in the first quarter of 2024.Since the beginning of the war, @cogatonline has coordinated the entry of 282,126 vials of…
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) August 18, 2024
Moreover, the IDF International Spokesperson emphasized that since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) had “coordinated the entry [into Gaza] of 282,126 vials of the polio vaccine,” which are “sufficient for 2,821,260 doses.”
He further emphasized that since the infectious disease was first reported in Gaza in July, 9,000 vials were transferred through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, further supplementing the doses that were already distributed in the area.
Vaccine vials to arrive in Gaza
Shoshani commented on his initial post, further adding that 43,250 additional vials – “tailored to the virus found in environmental samples” – are scheduled to arrive in Israel and transported to the Gaza Strip, which should be “sufficient to vaccinate over one million children” in two doses.
Additionally, Shoshani stated that COGAT assesses the situation regularly with the Health Ministry, WHO, and UNICEF, ensuring a better understanding of the status of the virus in the Gaza Strip. He also noted that USAID also assists in the implementation of vaccinations among the population in Gaza.
In addition to vaccinating the civilian population in Gaza, in late July, the IDF began a broad vaccination operation for all the regular and reserve soldiers in the Gaza Strip, The Post reported in July.
After finding remnants of the highly infection viral disease in Gaza’s sewage system, the IDF, in coordination with the Health Ministry, launched a campaign to provide over 3000,000 polio vaccines for soldiers and Gazans.
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