In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the occupied Palestinian territories, the World Bank announced, on Saturday, its supplementary contribution to the Palestinian Authority for essential health services, the Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) reported.
“COVID-19 continues to pose a high risk of morbidity and mortality, as well as a burden to healthcare systems. Due to low capacity of testing in the Palestinian territories, the number of COVID-19 cases are underestimated. Still, the numbers of new infections reported daily continue to reach new highs. The additional financing will support the original project by providing immediate response to COVID-19, but also contributing to long-term resilience.”
– Kanthan Shankar, World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza
The additional grant will aim to obtain medications and medical equipment such as defibrillators, hospital beds, vital-signs monitors, and ultrasound machines for the treatment and management of acute and chronic health conditions.
The contributions will be applied to provide mobile health clinics for those rural communities who lack basic transportation services and health clinics.
The Palestinian Minster of Health, Mai Alkaila reported, on Sunday, that 4,319 new cases, 14 deaths (6 in the West Bank and 8 in Gaza) while 7,480 recoveries were documented in the last 24 hours.
Alkaila added that 269 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized at this time, 106 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
According to WAFA’s statistics, there has been a total 578,424 COVID-19 cases diagnosed, 505,571 of those have fully recovered, while 5,166 of those have died with the virus.
Photo: PNN
