Decrease in deaths and injuries … and Hariri seeks to carry the Russian vaccine

And the report from the Ministry of Health showed that the number of patients in hospitals remains high. Today, the number has reached 2,266 cases, including 941 in the intensive care unit, and 315 patients require ventilators. At the health sector level, today there were 3 injuries and the accumulated number in this sector stabilized at 2,473. The total number of wounded in Lebanon reached 340,861 and deaths to 4,037 since the outbreak of the crisis. This is while the number of active cases is 37,789 cases.

National Pfizer
The Health Minister had continued to launch vaccination campaigns in Bekaa and Baabda, noting that Lebanon was quick to get the vaccine, which arrived on February 13. The same vaccine arrived in Australia today. He thanked Pfizer, which oversees the vaccination process, saying: “I have made a commitment to the Ministry of Health. We recognize your patriotism and affiliation with the Lebanese homeland and society, and this is a point that will remain on your record.”

Hassan revealed that the number of people registered on the platform last Saturday reached 36,000 citizens, and when the vaccination campaign began, about 56,000 citizens registered on the platform. He stressed that there is a discrepancy in registration numbers between governorates. In Baalbek, the registration rate is low, with only 7,642 citizens registered so far, in Hermel 1,139 and Bekaa de Zahle-West Bekaa Governorate 21,770, with the highest number of registrants in Mount Lebanon Governorate . The total number became 500,000 citizens, half of them from Mount Lebanon.

The best programs in the world
The head of the National Vaccine Administration Committee, Abdel-Rahman Al-Bizri, at the Saida Government Hospital, also launched the vaccination campaign. He emphasized that the program developed by the National Committee will need some modifications because it is not complete at this time. There are “some things that we noticed yesterday and today during vaccination operations. We have worked on them, either in terms of improving electronic performance or in terms of improving registry performance and the way we communicate with citizens.”
He noted that the World Bank had approved a vaccination program for the time being, because it considered the program developed by the National Committee to be among the best programs it had seen. He said: “Do not be fooled, since there are countries that started vaccinating and stopped, and others started and stumbled, and we will try not to fall into their mistakes and learn from them.”

Russian vaccines
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that a phone call was made between the President-designate, Saad Hariri, and the Russian President’s special envoy for the Middle East and African countries, and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. The two sides discussed the issue of Russia’s assistance to Lebanon to fight Corona disease, including shipping a batch of vaccines to Beirut.

Vaccinated journalists
The Publishers Union has been informed by the Ministry of Public Health that the vaccination process of journalists and media professionals, who have registered their names through the online platform, will start from next week. They will receive a text message, which will specify the appointments and the vaccination centers.

Effective and safe vaccines
For his part, the director of the Beirut Lebanese Medical Association, Professor Sharaf Abu Sharaf, confirmed that so far more than 200 million people, and I am one of them, have received the vaccine. The vaccines circulating in the global market against Coronavirus (Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazhnica, Sputnik 7 and others) have demonstrated their ability to significantly reduce the risk of cases of serious and dangerous diseases. In America and Europe, the immunity of people who received it amounted to more than 90 percent. Furthermore, hospital care and mortality rates have decreased significantly.

He added, at a press conference, in the presence of the president of the Doctors ‘Union in Tripoli, Salim Abi Saleh, and the head of the Publishers’ Union Joseph Al-Qasifi, that “the delay in the administration of the vaccine will lead to new variants of the virus that may not be completely affected by the vaccine and have unfortunate consequences. The RNA technology used is 20 years old. “It is used to treat cancerous diseases. It is safe and effective and does not remain in the body, but comes out in 3 weeks. “
He stressed that the Lebanese Medical Union urged the demand to receive the vaccine, in order to achieve a community immunity higher than 80%, noting that the quantities of the vaccine that will gradually arrive this year are enough to vaccinate 50% of citizens, and the rest will receive the vaccine next year.