A decision to open the country … and continue with the night curfew?

Al-Akhbar wrote:

The decision has been resolved. No extension of the country’s blockade. This was announced by the Crown Ministerial Committee, after its meeting yesterday. This “cartridge” was the last in the battle against the virus, which spreads very rapidly in all regions without exception. As for the last options available to the country, the beginning of a new phase of coexistence with the virus has become decisive, which does not bode well for optimism, especially after the failed experiments that accompanied the previous stages. closing. During those closures, people did not take seriously the severity of the virus, not even official authorities. Thus, today we are faced with the option of “escaping.” There is no other name for what will happen after leaving the country to its own devices.

In any case, there were no other alternatives after the shutdown, given that economic conditions in the country do not tolerate decisions of this decision today. This was stated by the Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan, in the statement he made after the meeting of the ministerial committee, reviewing the “disappointments” before announcing the committee’s decision to “gradually exit the closure”, provided that “tomorrow it takes place a meeting to clarify the exit plan, which will be evaluated weekly with some crucial points proposed to limit the spread of the virus. ”Al-Akhbar learned that the committee meeting witnessed a sharp discussion for the first time between Hassan, for On the one hand, and Petra Khoury, adviser to the prime minister for health matters, on the other hand, who reached the point of a clash. The latter proposes ideas that Hassan considers unrealistic and that cannot be applied in Lebanon, given its economic crisis on the one hand, and the weakness of the state structure on the other. Furthermore, outside the meeting, Hassan complains about his “dominance” over decisions related to the health sector. The committee sources said rumor that the trend in it is to continue the curfew decision after nine at night, in addition to the continuous closure of nightclubs and cafes. In this sense, Hassan stressed that the plan to be drawn up is supposed “to imitate the Lebanese reality, not to implement a European or American plan.” Regarding the disappointments, Hasan announced that what was achieved during the closure period at the health level was below the ambitions of the ministry, since “we remained below the required level in terms of raising the level of preparation in hospitals as only 60 beds in government hospitals and 34 beds in private hospitals were added. ». As for the other failure, it was manifested in the inability of the state to reduce the rate of positive exams to less than 12%, since the percentage remained at the threshold of 15%, which is expected to increase even more in the coming days. .
Faced with the decision to break the isolation, the death toll continues to rise, and has reached its peak in the last five days, with 90 deaths registered at once (6 victims yesterday). Although this number is presented as a “natural” result in relation to the number of people connected to ventilators in intensive care rooms, it is still one of the indicators that warn of the seriousness of the situation in the country. And the injury meter is not in better shape, as it was recorded yesterday, 1782 injuries, most of them local. With these numbers, the number of active cases rises to 50 thousand (the total since last February is 129 thousand and 941 cases, of which 74 thousand and 8 cases have been cured).
Thus, the closure did not change anything at the counters that were still active, in addition to the number of injured, the count of critical cases in intensive care rooms continued to climb, with 385 registered cases, of which 139 were connected to respirators. If this means anything, it is that the closure decision failed in the objective it wanted to achieve, which is to allow the health sector to “take a breather.” The latter is unable to capture that breath in light of the virus outbreak on the one hand, and in view of the inability to strengthen this sector to make it capable of fighting on the other. As for the other news, it is that the number of injured among health workers registered 15 injured yesterday!