Lebanon Begins Long Road to Gradually Exit Lockdown

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon began Monday a six-week process to exit strict lockdown measures despite high rates of COVID-19 deaths and infections as the country’s economic crisis continued to bite.

A 25-day total lockdown starts to be eased as a four-stage plan took effect.

For the next two weeks, a 24-hours-a-day curfew will remain in place and residents can only leave home for a short period after getting an online permission from the authorities. Banks, supermarkets, groceries stores, bakeries, pharmacies and some factories are allowed to open with limited capacity, as well as some essential workers.

Transition from one stage to the other will take place every two weeks.

From Feb. 22, more businesses, including some non-essential, will be allowed to open, but large gatherings, prayer houses, restaurants and pubs will remain closed until the fourth phase at the earliest.

Health experts had recommended that the strict lockdown, in force since Jan. 14, be extended for another week to give hospitals a chance to recuperate as their ICUs remain almost completely full.

However, as the country’s economic collapse continues with unprecedented unemployment levels and a currency collapse, officials say another extension of the full shutdown is not feasible.

Lebanon will start an inoculation campaign next week with the first batch of vaccines scheduled to arrive in mid-February. Authorities hope to vaccinate 80 percent of Lebanon’s six million population by the end of the year or the first quarter of 2022 to achieve herd immunity.

Lebanon has seen almost 320,000 cases and 3,616 deaths since the virus was first detected last February.

It saw several record number of cases last month and registered a record 98 coronavirus-related deaths Friday. Despite the measures, the positivity rate remains dangerously high, standing at 22 percent over the past two weeks