The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Thursday it had received 150,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, AFP reports.
A statement from the Ramallah-based PA “health ministry” said that of four million doses ordered from the pharmaceutical giant, one million have been received so far.
The rest should be delivered in batches by the end of the year, it added.
At the end of last month, the PA’s “health minister” Mai al-Kaila had warned that the PA was facing a fourth wave of the coronavirus, and urged people to be vaccinated because of the spread of the more contagious Delta variant.
The government also indicated that unvaccinated officials would have to take unpaid leave until they had been jabbed.
On Thursday, according to AFP, the PA transferred 100,000 doses to Gaza. About half of these were the Russian Sputnik vaccine, and the other half were from Pfizer.
The PA officially launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign in February, with health workers receiving the first shots.
The campaign began after Israel transferred 2,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine and said it had earmarked another 3,000 shots for Palestinian Arabs.
Despite getting thousands of doses from Israel as well as vaccines from Russia, the PA has been critical of Israel and has accused it of holding up the transfer of vaccines.
As it criticized Israel, the PA provided vaccines to senior PA officials and to the Jordanian royal family.