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(Reuters) -The third phase of a delayed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, aid agencies said on Friday, after the rollout was derailed by Israeli bombing, mass displacement and lack of access.
The polio campaign began on September 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the area in 25 years.
The humanitarian pause to implement the campaign had been agreed, but the WHO and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said the area covered by the agreement has been significantly reduced from the previous pause in September, and now includes only Gaza city would cover.
The final phase of the campaign aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under the age of 10 in northern Gaza with a second dose of the new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving this goal is now unlikely due to access restrictions, the statement said.
COGAT, the Israeli military’s Palestinian civil affairs agency, said it helped coordinate the three-day campaign and that once it was completed, an assessment would take place to decide whether to extend the schedule.
“This coordination will ensure that the population can safely reach the medical centers where the vaccines will be administered,” the ministry said in a statement.
(Writing by Matthias Williams, editing by Friederike Heine and Ros Russell)