Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) WHO Situation Report 74

Coronavirus disease 2019?(COVID-19) Situation Report 74

Issued 29?April 2021

Highlights

1000 new COVID-19 cases a day in the Gaza Strip –?authorities?impose tighter restrictions?and?compulsory quarantine?in designated facilities for travelers from India?and?Bangladesh
In the West Bank,?infections continue to?decline, but?hospitals remain?busy with?83% of ICU beds?occupied
The?PA?MoH?says?that 99% of the COVID-19 virus circulating in Palestine is from the?highly contagious?British Variant B.1.1.7

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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.

Coordination,?planning?and monitoring?

The state of emergency over?COVID-19 decreed by President Mahmoud Abbas in the?West Bank continues until 3 May?2021
Local authorities in Gaza have curbed vehicular movements again alongside the tighter restrictions overall, including:
Taking legal action?against COVID-19 patients disobeying self-isolation orders
Imposing a compulsory quarantine?in designated facilities?upon travelers?entering Gaza?from India and?Bangladesh, starting from 27 April.

Surveillance

The WHO risk assessment remains high:?COVID-19?infections in the Gaza Strip?account for?the majority?of?all?cases in the oPt,?with?new cases slowly subsiding, but numbers?are?still high?with?deaths?in the last week?at record levels
In the?West Bank,?new?infections?are also?declining?slowly, but hospitals are still?struggling
The breakdown of active COVID-19 cases across the oPt is as follows:?Gaza Strip?(63.9%),?followed by?the West Bank governorates of Nablus (14.1%), Tulkarm (5.6%),?Jenin?(3.9%),?Ramallah?(3.7%),?Hebron?(3.2%),?Qalqilya?(1.5%)?and Bethlehem?and Tubas both?(0.8%)
The overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR)?across oPt?remains at?1.1 %.?The CFR is the proportion of deaths among identified confirmed?cases
The PA?MoH?says?that 99% of the COVID-19 virus circulating in Palestine is from the?B.1.1.7 variant?(first identified in the UK), which is considered 45% more contagious?than the original?virus

Laboratory testing and diagnostics

The number of tests conducted in the oPt has decreased by?21% during the reporting period (16?–?29?April), with?29,819?tests?conducted
In the Gaza Strip, an average of?2,494?tests per day have been conducted over the past week (23 – 29?April) with a positivity rate of 30%.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), Isolation and Case Management, Operations Support and Logistics?

The?overall occupancy rate of COVID-19 dedicated hospital beds in the?Gaza Strip is?57%, with 334?of 587?beds occupied.?Currently,?44?of the?77?Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds?(57%) are occupied, with?9?requiring?invasive mechanical?ventilation
The medical response?situation?in the West Bank?remains critical:?ICU?bed occupancy?has risen again to 83% (145?ICU beds?occupied,?with?40?patients on ventilators).

Maintaining Essential Health Services

WHO Conducts Medical Training for Mobile?Teams

WHO is holding training sessions in Gaza run by?NYCMedics, a global disaster relief organisation that deploys mobile medical teams worldwide. 60 medical staff, doctors and nurses from Gaza’s five main emergency departments are participating in a six-week-long online course on Mass Casualty Management.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

Latest?vaccine?arrivals

On 17 April, an additional 72,000 doses of AZ vaccines arrived in the oPt through the COVAX facility: 43,200 doses were delivered to the West Bank on 19 April, while Gaza got 28,800?doses
PA Health Minister Mai?Alkaileh?stated on??(20 April) that the?OPt?has bought 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer and Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines at a cost of $27.5 million.?Alkaila?said the vaccines will arrive ‘soon’
A donation of 20,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine?from the Russian Federation?to the PA?MoH?is scheduled to?arrive?in the oPt?on?29 April.

Vaccination coverage

253,937?people have been vaccinated in total across the oPt:?217,441?in the West Bank, and 36,496?in Gaza. These figures represent around?5% of the total Palestinian?population,?and?8% of those targeted for vaccination, according to the PA?MoH
Of these numbers, the total who have received their second dose are 164,094 in the oPt?overall. In the West Bank that number is 138,348;?and?in Gaza?it?is?25,746
Israel completed on 20 April its ‘second phase’ of vaccinating?around?110,000 Palestinian workers who received their first doses on?7 March ().?These?numbers are included in the total numbers?of vaccinated?stated?above.
A recent study from Public Health England?shows that?the?UK?COVID-19?vaccination?programme?has prevented?10,400 deaths?in those aged 60 and older up to the end of March,?referring to the use of its three approved vaccines including?AstraZeneca?().