BEIRUT: Lebanon kicked off Covid-19 vaccinations Sunday with jabs for health care workers and the elderly in an inoculation drive it hopes will keep the outbreak in check amid a deepening economic crisis.
The country has been under lockdown since mid-January, after an unprecedented spike in cases blamed on holiday gatherings forced overwhelmed hospitals to turn away patients.
Medical workers and those aged over 75 were the first to receive Pfizer/BioNTech shots at three major Beirut hospitals, a day after a shipment of 28,500 doses arrived at the capital’s airport.
The World Bank has allocated $34 million to inoculate an initial two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants.
“Finally there’s a glimpse of hope that things will get back to normal,” said medical student Dana Chatila, who was waiting in her white lab coat and mask outside the American University Medical Center where she works in the emergency department.
“It’s going to take time of course, but the darkness is ending.”
The pandemic has compounded the woes of Lebanese, who are struggling with a dire economic crisis and still reeling from Beirut’s massive port blast last summer that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.
More than half the population lives in poverty, and rights groups have warned millions will struggle to survive without help if coronavirus restrictions last too long.
Caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab said: “We hope to reach adequate community protection so life can gradually return to normal in Lebanon as soon as possible.”
The first jab was given to Mahmoud Hassoun, head of the intensive care unit at Rafik Hariri Hospital, which has been at the forefront of battling the outbreak.
“Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of this plague in the country,” he told AFP.
The second to roll up his shirt sleeves in front of the cameras was popular Lebanese comedian Salah Tizani, 93, known by his stage name Abu Salim.
“I’m telling everyone to come and get vaccinated,” he said. “Better to get vaccinated than to be knocked down by this deadly virus.”
Among those vaccinated by early afternoon were more than 100 people over the age of 75, health ministry adviser Mohamad Haidar said. From Monday, another 18 hospitals across Lebanon would join in the vaccination campaign, he said.
Authorities say 336,992 people have caught Covid since February 2020, of whom 3,961 have died.
Lebanon has ordered around six million vaccine doses in total, including two million from Pfizer/BioNTech and another 2.7 million via the international Covax distribution program.
The World Bank and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are to monitor the vaccine rollout.
Some 450,000 people have signed up to be vaccinated in Lebanon including 45,000 aged over 75 and 17,500 health sector staff, caretaker health minister Hamad Hassan said.
He has promised all residents would be vaccinated, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in the country.
But many in Lebanon are still hesitant to get the jab.
Of 500 people surveyed by private think-tank Information International, 31 percent said they would get vaccinated, 38 percent said they would rather not, and 31 percent were undecided.
Lebanon’s government stepped down after the August 4 port blast but remains in a caretaker capacity as a deeply divided political class has since failed to agree on a new cabinet.
Lebanon desperately needs the new government to start sweeping reforms and unlock billions of dollars in international aid.
Saad Hariri, who returned as premier designate in October almost a year after he stepped down under street pressure, said he wanted a “government of experts not affiliated with political parties.”
“Whoever prevents the government from being formed prevents reforms from being launched, delays stemming the collapse... and prolongs the suffering of Lebanese,” he said after weeks in which he and President Michel Aoun have blamed each other for the deadlock.
He spoke on the 16th anniversary of the assassination in Beirut of his father, former premier Rafik Hariri.
Crisis-hit Lebanon kicks off COVID-19 vaccinations
https://arab.news/yntvc
Crisis-hit Lebanon kicks off COVID-19 vaccinations
- Medical workers and those aged over 75 were the first to receive Pfizer/BioNTech shots at three hospitals
- The World Bank has allocated $34 million to inoculate an initial two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants
Israeli Druze leader says Syrian community ‘besieged’ months after clashes
- “They aren’t allowed to bring in any humanitarian aid, including the aid we’re trying to deliver,” Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif told AFP
- Clashes erupted last July in southern Syria between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes
JULIS, Israel: Seven months after deadly clashes between Syria’s Druze minority and government-backed forces, the spiritual leader of Druze in neighboring Israel said members of the community across the border remained in peril.
“They’re still besieged — completely encircled. They aren’t allowed to bring in any humanitarian aid, including the aid we’re trying to deliver,” Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif told AFP in an interview this week.
The cleric spoke in Julis, a quiet Druze village in northern Israel, where the community has set up an “emergency room” to coordinate aid efforts for Druze in Syria.
Israeli and Druze flags hang on the walls of the room, alongside posters in Hebrew and Arabic calling for an end to the killing of Syrian Druze.
The Druze are followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam centuries ago. Its adherents are spread across parts of Syria, Israel, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Clashes erupted last July in southern Syria between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes.
The Syrian authorities said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses and monitors accused them of siding with the Bedouin.
Israel bombed Syria during the violence, saying it was acting to defend the minority group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting left more than 2,000 people dead, including 789 Druze civilians who were “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that some 187,000 people were displaced by the violence.
- ‘Why not let them return?’ -
“There are still more than 120,000 people displaced from their homes,” Sheikh Tarif said.
“Thirty?eight villages have been captured, and residents aren’t allowed to return. There are more than 300 captives, including children and women.”
AFP was unable to verify those claims.
Although a ceasefire was reached in July, access to Sweida remains difficult.
Residents accuse the government of imposing a blockade on the province, which Damascus denies. Several aid convoys have entered since then.
“Why not let them return to their villages? We’re in the depths of winter and that is a mountainous area. It’s very cold,” Tarif said.
With Syria’s government and Kurdish-led forces agreeing last month to integrate Kurdish fighters and civil institutions into state structures, Sweida is the last major area outside Damascus’s control.
Tarif said the community did not need government security forces in the region.
“The Druze have forces capable of defending themselves and maintaining order,” he said, referring to Syrian government forces as jihadists and “Islamic State members.”
Many in Syria remain wary of Sharaa, given that the jihadist group he once led started out as an Al-Qaeda affiliate and many of its former members are in his government.
Israel’s leaders have repeatedly referenced Sharaa’s jihadist past in calling for the West not to legitimize him.
Nevertheless, Israel and Syria, which have no official diplomatic ties, have held several rounds of direct talks in recent months.
Following negotiations in January, and under US pressure, both sides agreed to set up an intelligence?sharing mechanism as they moved toward a security agreement.
One issue under discussion is the possibility of Syrian Druze working in Israel.
Sheikh Tarif confirmed “that is something we have heard” and added that he wished any Syrian could come to work as a daily laborer “because the (economic) situation in Syria is very difficult.”
He also called for Druze across the Middle East to be able to visit their religious sites in neighboring countries, “just as our Christian and Muslim brothers visit their holy places” in states with which they may not have diplomatic relations.
“The Druze also deserve to access and pray at our holy sites in Syria and Lebanon and for them to come visit our holy places” in Israel, he said.
