Lebanon Hits Record for Daily Virus Deaths, Vaccination Plan Unveiled

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered Wednesday record 76 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours in addition to 3,906 cases, as the national vaccination plan was unveiled.

The cases were detected among 16,611 PCR tests, a Health Ministry report said. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 22.7 percent.

Among the newly recorded cases, only five were detected among travelers arriving in Lebanon, with the total number of cases since the virus was detected in the country in late February rising to 289,660.

The Health Ministry said 2,428 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 945 in ICUs and 317 on ventilators.

Lebanon witnessed a surge in daily virus deaths last week which has continued into this week, with a then-new record of 73 deaths registered Tuesday. The overall number of coronavirus-related deaths since February stands at 2,553.

As cases remained high and hospitals still struggled to face the virus, authorities extended a total lockdown until February 8 in a bid to curb the spread of the virus and relieve the health care sector.

The national coronavirus vaccination plan was launched Wednesday, with the caretaker health minister saying the government aims at vaccinating around 80 percent of the population by the end of the year.

An online platform to register for vaccination is set to go live Thursday and it is optional as the government has not made the vaccine obligatory.

Lebanon has so far ordered 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough for 3 million individuals, taking into account that each patient requires two doses of the vaccine.

A first shipment of 50,000 Pfizer-BioNTech jabs is scheduled to arrive on February 8.

The plan aims at protecting as much of the most vulnerable groups as possible. The plan is also in line with international standards, adopting the principle of freedom of a person to not be obliged to get vaccinated.

The vaccine will be free of charge, even if obtained through private vaccination centers.

The 12-point vaccination plan covers organizational matters, planning, resources, supply, target population groups and priorities, vaccination centers, vaccination monitoring, human resources, vaccines Lebanon is purchasing and authorization to introduce vaccine in the private market.