COVID-19 Spread Slowing In Lebanon – Health Minister

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanese Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Sunday the spread of COVID-19 was slowing down significantly across the country, expressing hopes that stepping up inoculations in the coming weeks would help the nation resume normal life in the summer.

Hassan said he hoped that all those registered for vaccines would have been fully vaccinated by the end of July, marking that the ministry would receive 130,000 doses of AstraZeneca jabs later on Sunday, and 900,000 shots from Pfizer in May and June.

The health minister also noted that the positivity rate of cases to tests dropped from a peak of 22% in February to 11% at end of April while the number of deaths and cases have constantly been dropping since peaking in February.

“The figures were encouraging,” Hassan said, though he urged caution and continued adherence to measures to slow the spread.

"These figures have lowered the risk factor from level four to level three," Hassan said. "We hope that in June to reach level two so that we can gradually return to normal life."

Once again, the minister urged the citizens to register to receive the vaccine, with only about a quarter of Lebanon's adult population registered on a Health Ministry platform. The nearly 3-month-old inoculation campaign has gone off to a very slow start with about 171,043 people, or 3.6% of adult population, fully vaccinated until April 30.