Al-Akhbar: Crown up to 40,000: Lebanon is in critical condition

Al-Akhbar wrote:

The last two days passed some reliable hope in the face of the Coronavirus. The battle is heading day by day towards the loss of the country, with the incredible increase in the number of wounded and victims, which reached a fatal peak during the last two days, with 3,684 wounded (1751 yesterday and 1933 the day before yesterday) and 23 victims to the time, raising the number of victims to 625.

Officially, Lebanon is in danger with a total number reaching 40,000 and with a steady increase in the number of critical cases, which reached 270 cases, 25 more than the day before yesterday. According to medical sources, this indicator is the second after the death rate to estimate the path that the virus is taking in the country, without this meaning excluding other indicators of the same importance, including the incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants, which reached 373 cases in the last two weeks, which is the rate. It is very dangerous, according to the Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan, and the rate of positive tests exceeded 12%. This rate places Lebanon second in the world in terms of the number of injured.
What do these indicators mean? According to the head of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Assem Araji, there is no room for optimism after “the health situation is critical.” What makes matters worse today is that the country is entering a second wave of the outbreak of the epidemic, “and there are no care beds available,” Minister Hassan said, literally, with private hospitals far from the confrontation.
This requires immediate interventions, which have become the last cartridge in the face of death that the country prepares with the onset of winter. In addition to these interventions, “the urgent increase in the number of intensive care beds and the opening of departments for Corona patients as soon as possible in all public and private hospitals alike,” according to Araji.
These interventions, according to Araji, are today among the priorities, although it does not exclude the possibility of working in parallel to make other “fateful” decisions, including the general closure for a sufficient period to besiege the virus. However, this option continues to be a matter of controversy, especially in light of the economic reality that the country is experiencing on the one hand, and given the impossibility of achieving the goal decreed if the community continues to deal with the Corona virus, such as the case today. Araji considered that this option “is necessary, but it will not achieve the required result without the application of preventive measures and the full and comprehensive commitment of all parties and sectors.”
There are no other options available, so it is either ready or “let’s prepare for the worst,” says Araji, especially considering that “the Corona vaccine will not arrive in Lebanon before the middle of next year, after making sure which is safe and effective in the first place ”.
In addition, the general closures continue to drag cities and towns daily, and the towns of Ras al-Matn and Salim in the Baabda district were added to the list yesterday, which were completely closed for a week, by decision of the governor of Mount Lebanon . The governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bashir Khader, issued the decision to close all shops, private establishments, cafes and restaurants that operate in the city of Baalbek from today until Sunday night on November 8, from 5:00 a.m. the afternoon until the next morning.