Lebanon gave the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines to a doctor and former actor on Sunday, when he embarked on an inclusion campaign he hopes will keep an eye on the pandemic in the midst of an economic crisis.
The first person to receive the injection was Mahmoud Hassoun, head of the intensive care unit at Rafik Hariri’s main coronavirus-fighting hospital.
“Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this plague in the country,” Hassoun told the AFP news agency.
He received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a day after the first batch of 28,500 doses landed at Beirut airport.
Health care workers and those over 75 years of age will be the first to receive the vaccine under the national rollout plan.
Lebanese comedian Salah Tizani, 93, best known as the stage name Abu Salim, was second for putting his t-shirts in front of the cameras.
“I urge everyone to come and be vaccinated and not to be afraid. It is better to be vaccinated than to be killed by this deadly virus, ”he told AFP.
Prime Minister Caretaker Hassan Diab and Health Minister Hamad Hassan were present at the time of the vaccination.
“I will not be getting the vaccine today,” Diab told reporters. “Priority will be given to the medical staff, who have made great sacrifices and must be fully protected to carry out their message.”
Healthcare workers at Beirut’s three hospitals were expected to have their first sighting on Sunday.
For his part, Hassan said about 450,000 people have signed up to receive the vaccine in Lebanon including 45,000 older than 75 and 17,500 workers from the health department.
He also promised that all residents would be vaccinated, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in the country.
The World Bank and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Societies (IFRC) will monitor the distribution of the vaccine.
Lebanon has so far diagnosed 336,992 virus infections, including 3,961 deaths.
People are waiting to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination campaign at Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, in Beirut, Lebanon, 14 February 2021 [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]Pandemic amid economic crisis
Last month, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said it had ordered 2.1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is available in stages over the year.
The country has also ordered 2.7 million doses through the global COVAX scheme and officials say talks are ongoing about ordering about 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The total number of doses ordered so far would cover about half of Lebanon’s population of more than six million, which includes at least a million refugees from Syria.
The country has been under a 24-hour curfew for nearly a month after an unprecedented spike in cases blamed on holiday gatherings forcing hospitals to overtake patients turned away for lack of beds.
The pandemic has devastated Lebanon, which is already struggling with a severe economic crisis and is still recovering from a devastating explosion at the port of Beirut last year that killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed large areas of the capital.
The Lebanese pound has lost more than 80 percent of its value to the dollar on the black market, prices have gone up, and many have seen their savings locked in banks.
More than half of the population lives in poverty, and rights groups have warned that millions would struggle to live without help if coronavirus restrictions lasted too long.
The latest lockout, which residents say was implemented without support, began raising protests at the end of last month in Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli.
At least two people have died in clashes with Lebanese security forces, and hundreds more have been injured.