The Research Center in Arab American University and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics announced the beginning of scanning serum from local community people, in order to know the percentage of Palestinian people who have developed anti-bodies for COVID.
The announcement came as part of the meeting that took place in AAUP-Ramallah Campus between Prof. Ali Zeidan Abu Zuhri- the University President and Dr. Ola Awad- the PCBS President, with the presence of Dr. Moayad Abu Saa- the VP for Academic Affairs, Prof. Mohammad Asia- the VP for the Medical Schools Affairs, Dr. Faisal Awartani- the CEO of the Research Center in AAUP, Dr. Nowar Qotob- the Head of the Health Science Department in the Faculty of Graduate Studies in AAUP and a delegation from the PCBS.
Prof. Abu Zuhri welcomed the guests and talked about the importance of such partnership to guarantee the quality of the provided services as at the same time where Palestine is trying to understand COVID pandemic map in order to control it, this initiative to scan serums was announced to study the local community cases who developed anti-bodies for corona. This research will enrich the scientific research and we are focusing on the importance of the joint partnership with the government to make achievements that will benefit the health of our citizens.
Prof. Abu Zuhri also emphasized on the importance of collaboration between AAUP and PCBS and that this is not the first time they collaborate for scientific reasons. He also praised the role that the PCBS does in providing important statistical data to use in researches.
Dr. Ola Awad- the PCBS President praised this step that AAUP does aiming to enhance the scientific research, especially in the field of COVID. She added that AAUP was one of the first organizations to initiate and conduct researches related to this pandemic and this virus, and that those researches helped in facing and controlling the spread of the virus. Dr. Awad also stressed on the importance of the data that the center provides that can be used for different purposes including the scientific research.
Dr. Awad also said that this meeting is part of the joint collaboration between Arab American University and the Palestinian Center Bureau of Statistics which will be a survey study to understand the pandemic map in the Palestinian community by scanning serums of people who were previously infected with COVID. She added that the PCBS has already assigned the sample and trained the researchers, and that the center will be supervising all collected data and then a joint report will be prepared between AAUP and PCBS in order to build a data map.
Dr. Faisal Awartani- the CEO of the Research Center in AAUP said that after collecting the data, a special team from the research center in AAUP will analyze the data using the multi-variables statistical models that can discover the group of people who can largely be infected with the virus, and the group of people who will less-likely be infected. Then the research team will publish the results in global scientific journals, and at the same time, the results will be provided to the decision makers in order to help them put policies to control the spread of the virus.
Dr. Nowar Qotob- the Head of the Health Sciences Department in the Faculty of Graduate Studies said: “a special team from the PCBS has chosen a random sample of 2000 people of the age of 18 and above living in the different governorates of the West Bank. The research field team from PCBS will start the personal interviews with the participated people to collect data and information, and a special team from AAUP will work on taking the blood samples in order to test the anti-bodies in them by a medical analysis team from AAUP”.
The Research Center in Arab American University works to encourage the quantitative researches in the Arab World in general and in Palestine in specific, as the center supports researchers and decision makers in the governmental and private sectors of the health, educational, economic and financial fields, by providing data t hat can help in making decisions by providing modern technology in collecting and analyzing data.
