Residents queue to get their AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of the first-of-its-kind vaccine marathon in Lebanon, held on Saturday. (Credit: Hussam Shbaro)
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More than 10,500 people received an AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday as part of the first-of-its-kind “vaccine marathon,” held to overcome public skittishness about the AstraZeneca vaccine and boost inoculation numbers. Health centers around Lebanon offered walk-in shots on Saturday to all residents over the age of 30. Officials proclaimed the daylong campaign a success; caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Sunday that based on the results of the drive, similar events would be held weekly “according to need and the number of doses available.” He also noted that 780,000 doses of Pfizer are scheduled to arrive in Lebanon during the month of June, promising a “Pfizer marathon soon.” Before Saturday’s drive, some 463,138 people had received a first vaccine dose, or about 9.7 percent of the population, according to data released by the Health Ministry.
The Beirut Bar Association called for a two-day strike by its members on Friday and Monday to protest the arrest of the lawyer Rami Ollaik on defamation charges. Ollaik, a lawyer and the founder of the anticorruption alliance United for Lebanon, was arrested on Thursday in front of his office in Beirut’s Adlieh and remains in custody on charges related to comments he had made regarding Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat. The Bar Association has called Ollaik’s arrest illegal, citing Article 79 of the law governing the legal profession, which specifies that the bar’s head should be notified before any lawyer is interrogated about an alleged crime.
President Michel Aoun sent a cable on Saturday congratulating Bashar al-Assad on his win in the May 26 Syrian presidential election, making him one of a handful of Arab heads of state to do so. Syrian authorities announced on Friday that Assad had won with 95 percent of the vote, in a contest widely considered fraudulent. In the Arab World, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Omani sultan also sent congratulations, along with a number of non-Arab countries, including Russia, Iran, Belarus, Venezuela, North Korea and China. The announcement caps off a prickly season, during which some had feared clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime groups in Lebanon, particularly in Tripoli, on or after the Syrian election day, although there were no major outbreaks of violence.
Pope Francis announced on Sunday that he invited Lebanese Christian leaders to a meeting at the Vatican on July 1 for a “day of reflection.” According to the website Vatican News, the pope said he would meet with “the principal leaders of the Christian communities present in Lebanon,” without specifying whom, to hold “a day of reflection on the worrying situation in the country and to pray together for the gift of peace and stability.” Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri visited the Vatican last month, and the pope has promised to visit Lebanon, but only after political factions agree on a government formation.
Gas stations in Sur announced a two-day strike after a series of violent incidents involving frustrated customers. In the most recent incident, a group of people smashed gas pumps when they were denied service after trying to cut in line, the NNA reported on Sunday. Earlier this month, the son of a gas station owner in Bibnine, Akkar, was killed in an altercation with a customer. George Brax, a spokesperson for the gas station owners’ syndicate, called on security forces to “take the necessary measures to stop these attacks” and asked customers frustrated by the fuel shortages not to scapegoat gas station owners, saying the owners “are not the cause of the crisis, as the main reason for the gasoline crisis is the scarcity of U.S. dollars at Banque du Liban.”
