Lebanon Reports 2,479 New Coronavirus Cases, 60 More Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon Wednesday registered 60 new coronavirus-related deaths and 60 more cases, as the country looked ahead to expanding its vaccination campaign.

The cases were detected among 16,811 tests, with only nine cases recorded among travelers arriving from abroad. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 19.2 percent, down from 22 percent only last week.

The total number of cases since the virus was first detected in the country in late February 2020 rose to 346,063, according to the Health Ministry. The total number of fatalities stands at 4,152.

The Health Ministry said 2,274 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 941 in ICUs and 309 on ventilators.

Lebanon, under strict restrictions to check the spread of the disease, officially launched its national coronavirus vaccination campaign Sunday with 18 vaccination centers administering jabs to front-line healthcare workers and people over the age of 75, a Health Ministry official said.

More centers are expected to go operational in the coming few days and the ministry would start providing weekly updates for the number of vaccinated people from next week.

The official said the second batch of around 31,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab was expected Saturday, with more shipments due in coming weeks.