New COVID-19 Wave Hits Besieged Gaza: Red Cross
GAZA STRIP (Press TV) – Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip have been hit hard by an alarming increase in reported COVID-19 cases amid a critical shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment, the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) has warned.
The ICRC said in a report that hospitals in the Palestinian enclave were struggling with insufficient ICU capacity and had been under immense pressure to admit new patients.
Almost all of Gaza has been currently declared as a red zone by the Palestinian health authorities because of widespread community transmission, it said.
Gaza has faced more than 1000 new infections each day for the past couple of weeks, with positivity rates of between 30 percent and 38 percent for all tested persons.
Palestinian health workers have voiced serious concerns about the rising infections across Gaza.
"The situation is scary. Every day I see people dying of COVID-19. When I am at home, I do every possible recipe that I can think of that could increase the immunity of my children. I always wonder how to protect them and how to protect myself so that they don’t have to face my death,” a Palestinian nurse and a mother of four said.
Local authorities in the Gaza Strip struggled for months to lower the coronavirus infection rates through strict measures. However, the blockade by the Zionist regime has compounded the struggle of health workers in the occupied city, undermining their efforts to contain and track the spread of the virus.
Hundreds of Gazan patients have already lost their lives in recent years due to the regime’s inhumane practices under the eye of the international community.
The Zionist regime has applied illegal policies and imposed barriers that hinder Palestinians from accessing proper medical care.
In December last year, two dozen lawmakers of the European Parliament signed a petition launched by a rights group, calling on the Zionist regime to allow immediate entry of necessary equipment and medical supplies into Gaza to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regime also stands accused of practicing ‘vaccine apartheid.’
It does not provide jabs to the Palestinians, despite calls by several international organizations to ensure coronavirus vaccine doses are provided to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
As of Tuesday morning, Palestinian health authorities recorded 310,555 cases of the virus, including 3,319 deaths.
The ICRC said in a report that hospitals in the Palestinian enclave were struggling with insufficient ICU capacity and had been under immense pressure to admit new patients.
Almost all of Gaza has been currently declared as a red zone by the Palestinian health authorities because of widespread community transmission, it said.
Gaza has faced more than 1000 new infections each day for the past couple of weeks, with positivity rates of between 30 percent and 38 percent for all tested persons.
Palestinian health workers have voiced serious concerns about the rising infections across Gaza.
"The situation is scary. Every day I see people dying of COVID-19. When I am at home, I do every possible recipe that I can think of that could increase the immunity of my children. I always wonder how to protect them and how to protect myself so that they don’t have to face my death,” a Palestinian nurse and a mother of four said.
Local authorities in the Gaza Strip struggled for months to lower the coronavirus infection rates through strict measures. However, the blockade by the Zionist regime has compounded the struggle of health workers in the occupied city, undermining their efforts to contain and track the spread of the virus.
Hundreds of Gazan patients have already lost their lives in recent years due to the regime’s inhumane practices under the eye of the international community.
The Zionist regime has applied illegal policies and imposed barriers that hinder Palestinians from accessing proper medical care.
In December last year, two dozen lawmakers of the European Parliament signed a petition launched by a rights group, calling on the Zionist regime to allow immediate entry of necessary equipment and medical supplies into Gaza to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regime also stands accused of practicing ‘vaccine apartheid.’
It does not provide jabs to the Palestinians, despite calls by several international organizations to ensure coronavirus vaccine doses are provided to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
As of Tuesday morning, Palestinian health authorities recorded 310,555 cases of the virus, including 3,319 deaths.