MADRID 31 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, asked the Government of Israel this Thursday to facilitate the polio vaccination campaign limited only to the governorate of Gaza, in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
“It is urgent that this be completed in the coming days and we hope that Israel will facilitate this action,” he stressed at a press conference, adding that it is necessary for the vaccines to be administered “in a certain period of time” for them to take effect.
The authorities of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), will begin a vaccination campaign against polio this Saturday after the postponement of the third phase of immunization amid the constant bombings in the Palestinian enclave.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on October 23 that the third phase of vaccination had been postponed due to Israeli “intense bombings” and population displacement orders in the north of the Strip.
In August, the WHO confirmed a case of polio in a ten-month-old baby in the center of the enclave in the midst of the Israeli offensive, the first case of its kind in Gaza for 25 years. Poliovirus was detected in environmental samples in Khan Yunis and Deir el Balah.
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