Although infections have dropped in recent days, hospitals are still straining to cope with the post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases. (Credit: Marc Fayad)
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In a grim new record, 81 COVID-19 deaths were registered yesterday, while ICU hospitalizations remained at critical levels. Health experts had previously warned that COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations would surge in the third week of lockdown, which started Jan. 14, given the virus’ 14-day incubation period. Despite new infections dropping over the past week, doctors have advised against the country letting its guard down, crediting the lockdown, set to end Monday, for avoiding a “catastrophe.”
Amid the desperate situation at Lebanon’s overwhelmed hospitals, officials are mulling a plan to provide professional home-care services for COVID-19 patients. Drafted by the orders of physicians and nurses, syndicate of private hospitals and Lebanese Red Cross, the proposed program aims to treat coronavirus patients so that they don’t develop severe symptoms that require hospitalization. In turn, the scheme hopes to speed up the discharge of hospitalized patients while ensuring their proper treatment at home.
A newly formed committee to grant permits for private importers of COVID-19 vaccines convened for the first time. The government’s inoculation plan, rolled out Jan. 27, allows private sector imports of vaccines, but is vague on specifics. Imports not done by state entities must “adhere to the priorities of the national plan as well as registration and vaccination mechanisms through accredited vaccination centers,” the plan states. One hospital official told Human Rights Watch that he doesn’t know how the private sector will fit into the national vaccination scheme. Lebanon has secured promises of some 2.1 million doses from Pfizer, 2.6 million doses via the COVAX platform and another unspecified amount from AstraZeneca, far off the total doses needed to meet the government’s goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population by the end of the year.
The outgoing justice minister called for legal action regarding the alleged smuggling of subsidized medicine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marie-Claude Najm requested the prosecution at Lebanon’s highest court to initiate proceedings after subsidized hypertension medicine reportedly made its way to store shelves in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital. Security forces in past months have announced several arrests of people allegedly trying to take advantage of the central bank’s subsidies on pharmaceuticals by attempting to sell them abroad for profit.
Lebanon’s top prosecutor has formally requested documentation from the central bank head regarding the Swiss probe into money laundering. Judge Ghassan Oueidat yesterday instructed Riad Salameh, three regulatory bodies and the government’s commissioner at BDL to provide information as he prepares to respond Thursday to a Swiss request for legal assistance. Lebanon’s state-run news agency said the Swiss request pertained to financial transfers abroad made by Salameh, his brother and an assistant, all but confirming previous reporting the country was following this line of inquiry. Switzerland announced Jan. 19 it asked Lebanon for assistance into its investigation linked to possible embezzlement at BDL.
Eight more Lebanese nationals released from detention in the UAE arrived in Beirut, following mediation by the head of General Security. Abbas Ibrahim told AFP on Monday that he helped reach an agreement with the Gulf state to release 11 Lebanese, after the first freed man returned to Beirut the day before. The security official — who often serves as a negotiator for prisoner and hostage releases in the region — added that he has been in talks with Emirati officials for two years, but did not disclose the circumstances of the arrests.
A new report from a United Nations agency presented bleak economic indicators on how the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the deteriorating economy in Lebanon. “By the end of 2020, the pandemic had reduced formal private sector sales by 45 percent compared with 2019,” the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said Tuesday in a policy brief on the country’s ailing status. The agency added that full-time employment had dropped an average of 23 percent in key sectors, including cuts of 40 percent in construction and 31 percent in hotels and restaurants, and hit poor and marginalized groups hardest.