A nurse works at the Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon on July 23, 2021 (AFP)
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Caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad said yesterday that cancer medications that had been donated to the ministry had not been stolen or disappeared, following media reports last week that the drugs had run out. Abiad cited findings from a digital traceability pilot project that reportedly tracked two hundred packages of Opdivo, a cancer drug donated by American NGO Anera, from “the Health Ministry's warehouses in Karantina to the administration of the medicine to the patient.” Abiad commissioned the investigation after allegations of around two months’ worth of medicine were reportedly depleted in two weeks, sparking fears of “waste or diversion” in the Health Ministry. “The investigation committee will continue its work to track down the other cancer drugs,” Abiad added yesterday. While the central bank continues to subsidize hundreds of cancer medicines, Hani Nassar, chairman of the Barbara Nassar Foundation for Cancer Patient support, said last month that drug shortages have forced patients to resort to the black market at a steep premium.
General Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ghassan Oueidat submitted a request to open a judicial investigation into the road accident that killed singer George Al Rassi and his passenger and colleague Zina al-Murabi. The pair died when their car crashed on Monday into an unmarked, unlit concrete block in a road near the border between Lebanon and Syria, sparking outrage among Rassi's relatives and others about the dangerous nature of roads in Lebanon. Ashraf al-Moussaoui, a lawyer representing Rassi’s family, had filed a request for a judicial investigation before Oueidat’s submission yesterday, which will reportedly interrogate road contractors, among others.
"All the workers are on strike and no one has fixed anything," a source at state telecom provider Ogero told L'Orient Today yesterday after internet services resumed following widespread outages on Wednesday. Ogero services were interrupted in different areas across Lebanon Wednesday while the company’s employees observed the third day of open-ended strike in protest of their working conditions and wages. The Ogero source said the service resumption could be credited to the return of state electricity to service stations. Power outages have previously caused interruptions across state service offices. However, no solution for the strike is expected before the coming week, caretaker Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm said Thursday, as he would need to make “consultations'' regarding the Ogero employee union’s demands.
The Lebanese Army launched teargas at protesters as they blocked the Minieh-Tripoli highway on Thursday to protest power outages during the second consecutive evening sit-in at the Deir Ammar power plant. Two people had been injured attempting to break into the plant during a protest the night before. Facing severe currency devaluation, the already struggling state electric utility Electricité du Liban has faced difficulties procuring fuel, forcing power plant shutdowns and supplying a handful of hours of power each day at best. The unreliability of the state’s electricity has forced citizens to depend on costly private generator subscriptions which have also risen in cost in light of the crisis. The lira-to-dollar parallel exchange rate rose again yesterday, negating the modest gains made last week, as generator subscriptions and diesel prices increased while gasoline and gas cylinders became slightly more affordable.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Presidential election: Nabih Berri’s red lines”