Lebanon awaits February vaccine arrival as cases surge

A volunteer from Lebanese Red Cross sanitizes his colleague at Rizk Hospital in Beirut. (Reuters)

• Lebanon’s lockdown measures have also been compromised in parts of the country

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health minister in the caretaker government, Hamad Hassan, who is in hospital fighting a coronavirus infection, has signed the first payment of financial dues for government and private hospitals from the country’s World Bank loan.
The decision came after hospitals protested against delays in the paying of bills for coronavirus treatments.
About 15,000 beds have been allocated in Lebanese hospitals for use by COVID-19 patients, with 13,000 in private hospitals and 2,000 in government hospitals.
But every bed in Lebanon’s hospitals is occupied, together with emergency departments, where hundreds of patients wait for beds to become available.
Lebanon’s nationwide lockdown is scheduled to remain in effect until Monday. It will be reviewed after the country’s infection rate is examined in the coming days.
Salma Assi, head of the Medical Equipment and Devices Importers Syndicate, said: “Companies received their requests for oxygen equipment today. Some companies expect to receive their requests during this week and others at the end of the week.”
Lebanon is facing a lack of oxygen machines following a huge surge in demand as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the country, with some citizens stockpiling them for private use.
Assi said: “A mechanism has been put in place to prevent the monopoly of these machines so that the device is delivered based on a doctor’s order, only if a patient can prove a positive PCR test.
“There are a lot of machines on the market. We do not know how they were brought or how effective they are. They were sold on the black market.”
Lebanon’s lockdown measures have also been compromised in parts of the country. Health violations were recorded in popular areas after shop owners and craftsmen pretended to close their businesses, but continued to trade behind closed doors.
Head of the Lebanese Parliamentary Health Committee Assem Araji told Arab News: “There is a need to motivate people to stay in their homes during the remainder of the total closure, which, according to scientific information, should be for three weeks.”
“We hear the cries of hungry people who live day by day and need an income, who say that they cannot afford a bundle of bread.
“Half of the Lebanese live on minimum pay, which has lost its value with the collapse of the Lebanese pound.
“What is required is cash assistance, and this has not happened yet. As for talking about support from here and there, it has no value.
“The cases that we witnessed in the middle of this month are the result of socializing in New Year’s parties, but the cases that are recorded now are the result of the socializing that took place just after the total lockdown decision, because people were given a few days to go shopping, so unprecedented movement took place in supermarkets — the results of which we see today.”
Araji warned that only a mass vaccination campaign could bring the situation under control.
“We expect the first batch of vaccines to arrive in the first week of February.
“The required mechanism for vaccination has been put in place, and it will take place in government hospitals. There are 35 sites for this.”
Araji said that medical and nursing staff, and those aged over 75 will be prioritized for vaccination when the rollout begins.
Does that mean President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will be first in line for the vaccine, as they are over 80?
“There are other politicians who are over 75 as well,” Araji said.