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Lebanon Registers 40 COVID-19 Deaths, 2,258 Cases in 24 Hrs

Lebanon Registers 40 COVID-19 Deaths, 2,258 Cases in 24 Hrs
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By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered 40 more coronavirus-related deaths and 2,258 new cases Sunday, as the country prepared to ease restrictions despite experts warning that it could lead to another surge of virus cases.

The cases were detected among 17,052 tests, with only six cases found among travelers arriving at Beirut International Airport. The positivity rate throughout the last two weeks stood at 17.8 percent.

The total number of cases since coronavirus was first identified in Lebanon a year ago has risen to 375,033, according to the Health Ministry’s daily COVID-19 report. The total number of fatalities now stands at 4,692.

According to the ministry’s report 2,178 people are currently hospitalized for COVID-19 and related complications, 912 are in ICUs and 277 on ventilators.

The latest figures came on the eve of Lebanon further easing restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the virus ahead of originally set date and against expert advice that it was premature to do so.

Authorities, under pressure from powerful business and trade associations, had announced in early February a four-stage plan to ease a virtually total lockdown imposed Jan. 14, over eight weeks, but a ministerial committee decided this week to accelerate the reopening with most shops and businesses set to reopen Monday while schools are set to resume classes from March 8.

The initial lockdown managed to drive down the number of cases in the country, but as the easing of the measures and rise of violations, a rise in infections has been recorded over the past week, raising concerns that things could quickly deteriorate if restrictions are removed.

Meanwhile, Lebanon has so far vaccinated 50,415 people against COVID-19 as it looked to step up its two-week-old inoculation campaign.

The Health Ministry said in a report it rolled out 51,546 jabs, all from Pfizer, between Feb. 13-27 to 28 vaccination centers and two mobile vaccination clinics. All the administered jabs were the first of two doses.

The report said the ministry still had 50,244 jabs to be rolled out in coming days.

Authorities hope to ramp up the vaccination campaign in coming week with tens of thousands of jabs set to arrive on weekly basis.

Lebanon received its third shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Saturday, containing around 41,300 jabs as the second week of the national inoculation drive came to an end. Around 100,000 jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have so far been received by Lebanon, with more weekly shipments scheduled to arrive. More doses are also set to arrive of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in mid-March.

 

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