Lebanon Registers 539 COVID-19 Cases, More Vaccines Arriving

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon recorded 539 new coronavirus cases and one death in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry reported Wednesday, while hundreds of thousands more vaccines are expected to arrive by next week.

The total number of cases now stands at 552,328 and 7,888 deaths since the virus was first discovered in Lebanon in February 2020.

Out of Wednesday's infections, 66 were from travelers arriving into Lebanon, as the number of infections among passengers continues to rise along with the increase of people arriving into the country for the summer.

The new cases were discovered out of 15,556 tests resulting in an average two-week positivity rate of 4 percent.

According to the Health Ministry report, 149 individuals were in hospital with the virus, with 61 in intensive care and 14 patients on ventilators.

A low number of vaccines were administered over the previous day due to the Eid al-Adha holiday closing many offices and government departments. The report detailed that 664 first stage jabs were handed out and 912 second stage vaccines. A total of 751,154 individuals, or 15.8 percent of the eligible population, have now been fully vaccinated since the rollout began in February.

Lebanon has received further shipments of coronavirus vaccines, including 108,000 Pfizer-BioNTech jabs and 129,600 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan wrote on Twitter Wednesday. Hasan also said a further 146,250 Pfizer vaccines would be delivered Sunday and 145,000 vaccines from AstraZeneca are expected to arrive next Monday.

As a result of the new shipments, vaccine centers have reopened walk-in appointments to those who have signed up for the jab online, the Lebanese Vaccine Executive Committee said Wednesday. Those aged over 50 are able to go to any center distributing Pfizer jabs and those aged between 30 to 49 years are able to walk-in to AstraZeneca vaccine centers. A full list of centers can be found on the Health Ministry website.

Lebanon has been witnessing a new wave of coronavirus infections with daily numbers well over 500 since the discovery of the more contagious Delta variant, having experienced a relative plateau during the spring months. Health experts have sounded the alarm over the increase in cases considering the weakened state of the country's health sector which is running on depleted resources and finances following the country's acute economic crisis.