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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report 59
Issued 14 January 2021
Highlights The oPt has witnessed a significant decrease in the numbers of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the reporting period UN Experts call on Israel to ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians
GENEVA (14 January 2021) – UN human rights experts today called on Israel, the occupying power, to ensure swift and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for the Palestinian people under occupation. “Israel’s roll-out of its vaccination programme against the COVID-19 pandemic for its citizens has been impressive. In this early stage of the worldwide inoculation programme, Israel has delivered the vaccines to a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country,” the experts said. Read full statement [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26655&LangID=E].
WHO preparedness, readiness and response
WHO continues to work closely with partners to support Ministry of Health’s (MoH) efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Key Performance Indicators for COVID-19 Response in oPt
Coordination, planning and monitoring
Public health restrictions, including movement restrictions in and between governorates and on weekends, continue in the West Bank until 17 January to contain the COVID-19 spread In the Gaza Strip, local authorities slightly eased the imposed movement restrictions. As of 8 January 2021, night curfew reduced to 20:00 to 07:00, while the weekend lockdown on Fridays and Saturdays will continue until further notice. Mosques re-opened on weekdays, as of 10 January and attendance at elementary schools resumed for grades 1 – 6, on 13 January.
Surveillance
The WHO risk assessment remains very high This week, the oPt witnessed a significant decrease in newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, with a 28% drop to 5,957 cases and an 11% drop in deaths to 137 for the reporting period The overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is at 1.1 %. The CFR is the proportion of deaths among identified confirmed cases Gaza now accounts for 50.7 % of all active cases in oPt, followed by the West Bank governorates of Nablus (9.4%), East Jerusalem (8.7%), Ramallah (7.5%), Tulkarm (4,3%), Hebron (3.8%), Jenin (3.5%) and Bethlehem (2.9%) for the reporting period.
Laboratory testing and diagnostics
“This delivery is very welcome because these simple tests are done by taking a nasal or throat swab, detect the presence of the virus for people presenting symptoms in less than five minutes with high accuracy, which helps authorities identify at an early stage if a person is infected and needs self-isolate,” said Abdelnaser Soboh, WHO’s Health Emergency and Coordination Officer in Gaza about WHO’s delivery of 100,000 COVID-19 rapid antigen tests on January 11 to provide rapid testing to the local health authorities in the Gaza Strip.
This delivery was made possible thanks to the Government of Kuwait.
The number of tests conducted in the oPt has decreased by 13% during the reporting period (8 – 14 January), with 28,011 tests conducted compared to the previous week In the Gaza Strip, an average of 1,930 tests per day have been conducted in the past week (8 – 14 January) with a positivity rate of 20.4%, indicating every fifth person is testing positive and testing should be scaled up. On 12 January, health authorities reported enough COVID-19 tests for 13 days until 24 January On 11 January, WHO delivered 30,000 sample collection swabs and 100,000 COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to the local health authorities in the Gaza Strip (pictured).
A number of essential laboratory items were this week delivered to the Ministry of Health’s central public health lab in Ramallah by WHO. The delivery is one of many supported by the Norwegian Government to upgrade the central lab and enhance its capacity to detect and report public health threats, such as COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, and reduce associated illness and death.
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), Isolation and Case Management, Operations Support and Logistics
As of 14 January, the overall occupancy rate of dedicated COVID-19 hospital beds in the Gaza Strip is 34%, with 183 of 540 beds occupied. Currently, 23 of the 90 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds (26%) are occupied, including two patients on invasive mechanical ventilation.
COVID-19 Vaccine
The Palestinian Authority MoH, with support from partners, is proceeding with preparations to be ready to receive the first vaccinations through the global Gavi COVAX AMC Facility [https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility], including the development of the COVID-19 National Deployment and Vaccination Plan to outline costed strategies for the deployment, implementation and monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccines in the oPt In parallel, the PA is in direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies and other countries to secure additional vaccine quantities. The MoH has authorized the use of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine under its own emergency use authorization procedure. The PA will reportedly receive the first shipment within one month and delivery is expected to be complete by end April 2021.
Risk Communications and Community Engagement
The COVID-19 Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Campaign, led by WHO, UNICEF and MoH and supported by partners continues to share health information and address misinformation through its national campaign
A revised national RCCE strategy for COVID-19 is being finalised which includes a new focus on community engagement and two-way communication to support the rollout and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in the community
Featured below are social media cards and videos with messages to support vaccine uptake which have been distributed as part of the national COVID-19 campaign in the past month. All campaign materials, by topic, are available to download here [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhT3IRQsAza0NYaPL9iEOmykA9uYFOOM]
To receive the RCCE materials on a fortnightly basis please contact Arwa Mhanna [mailto:mhannaa@who.int] at WHO.
How do I know COVID-19 vaccines are safe? (Click to watch video) [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J-oey33oITLSAZmD1ehDIAEtcNdNaaAk/view?usp=sharing]
Why it is important to get COVID-19 vaccine
Will the vaccine be available for everyone?
(Click to watch video) [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ocaDbAlmK3nibzguOkexQzJhXPduA8aS/view]
Follow prevention measures while vaccines are being developed and introduced
More local information
WHO COVID-19 Dashboard for oPt [https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiODJlYWM1YTEtNDAxZS00OTFlLThkZjktNDA1ODY2OGQ3NGJkIiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtNGIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9]
UN’s COVID-19 Emergency Situation Reports and information via OCHA [https://www.ochaopt.org/theme/covid-19]
Situation in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Globally See dashboards for latest updates on cases in countries in our neighbourhood493,501 cases and 3,687 deaths in Israel ( as of 13 January 2021, 10:00 CET [http://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/ead3c6475654481ca51c248d52ab9c61]) according to WHO EURO [https://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/ead3c6475654481ca51c248d52ab9c61]) Eastern Mediterranean [https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiN2ExNWI3ZGQtZDk3My00YzE2LWFjYmQtNGMwZjk0OWQ1MjFhIiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtNGIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9] Global [https://who.sprinklr.com/] Latest WHO advice and health information:
For updated WHO Publications and Technical Guidance on COVID-19, click here [https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance-publications]
Further information:
Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub, WHO oPt Head of Office, rockenschaubg@who.int
Dr. Ayadil Saparbekov, WHO oPt Health Emergencies Team Lead, asaparbekov@who.int
Alice Plate, WHO oPt External Relations and Communications Officer, platea@who.int
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