BEIRUT – Lebanon yesterday received its first coronavirus vaccines, a day before an inoculation drive kicks off in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country.
A plane landed at the airport here, reported an AFP correspondent, with authorities saying it is carrying 28,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab flown in from Belgium.
The shipment is the first after the World Bank allocated US$34 million (RM137.4 million) to inoculate two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants.
Hamad Hassan, the caretaker health minister, was among those on the tarmac to welcome the plane, and expressed great “relief”.
“The vaccine will reach all Lebanese citizens across the country”, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees and other residents, he said.
Lebanon has been under strict lockdown since mid-January, after an unprecedented spike in cases blamed on holiday gatherings that forced overwhelmed hospitals to turn away patients.
Its vaccination roll-out is set to start today.
Health workers will receive their first doses at Rafik Hariri Hospital – the country’s main public hospital tackling the Covid-19 outbreak – as well as American University of Beirut Medical Centre and Saint George Orthodox Hospital.
“The best gift one can ask for on Valentine’s Day,” tweeted Rafik Hariri Hospital director Firas Abiad.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, 61, is also to be vaccinated, said his office.
Under Lebanon’s vaccination plan, medical staff and those over 75 years old are to receive the jab first.
In total, the nation hopes to get around six million vaccine doses, including two million from Pfizer-BioNTech and another 2.7 million via the international Covax distribution programme.
Half a million people in Lebanon have signed up to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, said a Health Ministry official, although many others are hesitant about getting the jab.
Of 500 people surveyed by private think tank Information International, 31% said they will get vaccinated, 38% said they would rather not, and another 31% are undecided.
Lebanon was already in the throes of its worst economic crisis in decades when Covid-19 hit, and the situation has been exacerbated by a massive blast at the port here in August that killed more than 200 people and destroyed large parts of the capital.
The World Bank, and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are to monitor the vaccine roll-out, they said in a statement on Friday.
They aim to “ensure fair, broad and fast access to Covid-19 vaccines to help save lives and support economic recovery”, said the bank’s regional director, Saroj Kumar Jha.
Lebanon said 336,992 people have caught the coronavirus since last February, of whom 3,961 died. – AFP, February 14, 2021
