[ad_1]
On Monday, the Lebanese authorities decided to close the country from Thursday until February 1, after a recent record rate of infection by the Corona virus was registered and the intensive care departments of several hospitals reached their maximum capacity.
Before Christmas and New Years, the government allowed cabarets and bars to open their doors, despite the high number of cases, in an attempt to revive the ailing economy. This sparked criticism from health workers, who warned that the occupancy rate for beds in intensive care units is dangerously increasing, according to “AFP.”
Health Minister Hamad Hassan said, on Monday evening, after the meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Coronavirus, “The closure decision was made with the consensus of the Ministerial Committee, and Prime Minister Hassan Diab collected all opinions and unified them with the general closure decision from Thursday morning until the morning of February 1, 2021 ”.
From the Christmas gatherings at the end of December 2020
The official National Information Agency indicated that the curfew, which will accompany the closure, will be in force “from six in the afternoon to five in the morning.”
For his part, the Interior Minister, Mohamed Fahmy, said that “the percentage of arrivals through the Beirut airport will be reduced during the closure period”, noting that “the decision of the single and the double related to the operation of the mechanisms”.
In recent days, officials and doctors have reported that major hospitals have exceeded capacity, with a large increase in the number of injuries and the need for more patients to enter intensive care departments. Injured people had to wait many hours in emergency departments before securing a family for them.
Lebanon recorded record rates of infection, which peaked Thursday with 3,507 injuries, after the average injury rate ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 injuries in previous weeks. The total number of injured in the country exceeded 189,000, including at least 1,499 deaths.
The head of the interim government Hassan Diab said during the ministerial committee meeting: “There are no vacant beds in various intensive care wards and therefore we are facing a very difficult situation and we need exceptional and strict measures and implementation strict of the measures “.
On Twitter, Dr. Firas Abyad, director of Rafic Hariri University Hospital, the government facility leading efforts to tackle the epidemic, wrote: “Recently, the increase in the number of coronavirus cases has outpaced the increase in the number of beds. of attention”.
Lebanese officials fear the collapse of the health system, especially with the high number of injuries among medical personnel and their inability to receive new patients. As of Sunday, the number of injured in the health sector reached 1,977, including 12 deaths.
Lebanon attempted a general blockade at the beginning of the pandemic
The increasing spread of the virus comes at a time when Lebanon is witnessing its worst economic crisis, which has doubled poverty rates, prompting economic bodies to oppose closure restrictions.
The first national lockdown imposed in March succeeded in curbing the spread of the virus, before restrictions were gradually lifted in early summer.
However, the number of cases later increased, especially after the airport reopened and after the Beirut port explosion on August 4, which killed more than 200 people and injured at least 6,500.
Health sector experts warned that Lebanon is heading for a “catastrophic” health situation after the significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases during the holidays, while hospitals are close to reaching their maximum capacity.
And Petra Khoury, the interim adviser for health issues, announced to Agence France-Presse, last Saturday, that the National Committee to Fight Covid-19 will meet to issue a recommendation to the authorities to impose a new closure of the country for three weeks, according to ‘AFP’.
Lebanon has witnessed several closures since February 2020, the most recent of which was in November. However, the restrictions were subsequently relaxed, leading to a significant increase in the number of injured during the holidays.
On Saturday, the head of the Private Hospital Owners Union, Suleiman Haroun, spoke of a “catastrophic” situation and told AFP that the fifty private hospitals in Lebanon that receive Covid-19 patients are “almost full”.
He explained that these hospitals allocate 850 beds for injured patients, including 300 in intensive care, and said that “patients are queuing in the emergency, hoping to secure a bed.”
For her part, Petra Khoury said that “the problem is that when a patient is admitted to the intensive care unit, they stay there for three weeks”, which delays the possibility of admitting other patients.
He added that “the social gatherings and special parties that were organized at Christmas and New Years” greatly contributed to the increase in the number of injured, explaining that “they constituted more than 70% of the positive cases” registered in recent days.
He added that intensive care units in Beirut hospitals are now “over 90% full.”
“Many hospitals in Beirut have asked us not to transfer patients to them, so we are transferring them to the Bekaa (east) and Nabatieh (south) hospitals,” Lebanese Red Cross Secretary General George Kittana told AFP .
In addition to the serious health crisis, Lebanon is suffering the worst economic crisis, which has led to an increase in poverty at a rate twice as high, according to the United Nations. In February, Lebanon will receive its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines.
