Lebanon Registers 66 New COVID Deaths, 3,157 More Cases

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered 66 new coronavirus deaths and 3,157 more cases Wednesday, as experts urged the population to register for vaccination, saying it was the only way to defeat the pandemic.

The cases were detected among 15,701 tests, with only eight cases recorded among travelers from abroad. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 21.3 percent.

The total number of cases since the virus was first detected in the country in late February 2020 rose to 328,016, according to the Health Ministry. The total number of fatalities stands at 3,803.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 2,257 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 928 in ICUs and 289 on ventilators.

Lebanese authorities Monday began easing a total lockdown imposed to curb the dangerous spread of the virus, after January recorded the worst spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, the top COVID-19 expert lamented "vaccine hesitancy" in the country and warned the authorities not to fumble the inoculation campaign that is set to be launched Sunday.

"The two clear issues that are behind this hesitancy are a general lack of trust, and fear of the adverse effects from the vaccine. The vaccination drive is expected to launch in few days. Success hinges on a wide public participation, a low turnout will be tragic," Dr. Firass Abiad tweeted.

"There are some early worrying signs about the vaccination drive and time is running out. Anything short of a well-organized campaign will further erode the public trust and derail the whole process," Abiad wrote.

Lebanon will launch its COVID-19 inoculation campaign Sunday, a day after the first Pfizer jabs are set to arrive in the country, with a ceremony at the prime minister's office at the Grand Serail in Beirut. Mass vaccinations for health workers and people aged 75 and over will start on Monday at Abiad's Rafik Hariri University Hospital.

The first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech is expected to be 28,000 jabs from a total of 2.1 million doses reserved by the Lebanese government with similar weekly shipments into late March. AstraZeneca jabs will also start arriving in March.

The Health Ministry has said it would be receiving a total of 249,000 jabs by the end of March with a further 350,000 vaccines in the second quarter and 800,000 in the third quarter.

Officials say they hope to inoculate 80 percent of the population and achieve herd immunity by the end of the year or early 2022.