Lebanon Records 1,264 New Coronavirus Cases, 13 More Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered 13 new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,264 cases Tuesday as the country is expected to sign a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine this week.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan told Reuters Monday that Lebanon was expected to sign a deal with the pharmaceutical company and set to receive the first batch eight weeks after that.

Among the newly recorded cases, 11 were from travelers arriving from abroad, bringing the total number of positive cases in Lebanon to 148,877 since the disease was first detected in the country February 21.

A total of 13,987 PCR tests have been administered in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 12.3 percent.

Even though Lebanon had been witnessing a relatively lower number of cases recently, the head of Rafik Hariri University Hospital Dr. Firass Abiad warned Monday that intensive care unit bed occupancy was increasing and hospitals may reach full occupancy well before the holiday festivities began.

“Critical bed occupancy is above 80 percent. This is alarming. We may be at full occupancy even before the expected surge that will follow the festivities,” Abiad said in a tweet.

However, Hassan said Lebanon aimed to add 200 more ICU beds in the next two months, raising the total to 700.

According to the Health Ministry, 406 people are currently in a critical condition.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 is now 104,207.