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Inas Sharri wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:
At the end of this week, Lebanon enters a general lockdown for a period of two weeks in an attempt to contain the “Corona” epidemic, especially after warnings issued by the health sector about its arrival at the attrition stage. and its inability to absorb more “Corona” cases.
After a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council chaired yesterday (Tuesday) by President Michel Aoun, the interim Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, announced the decision of the total closure from Saturday, November 14 to Sunday, November 29 of the same month, indicating after the meeting of the Supreme Defense Council That Lebanon has become “in a critical situation”, and that after reaching “the very sensitive stage of the spread of the epidemic, there are no options other than general closure.”
Diab said that “if the Lebanese adhered to the measures and the epidemic was contained by reducing the number of infections, then Lebanon would have saved the people and perhaps also the economy”, especially before the Christmas season in a good period. ».
Corona’s total number of injuries exceeded 95,000, and the number of deaths in turn surpassed 730, and the most dangerous indicator was that the percentage of positive tests exceeded 14 percent of the total daily tests.
Diab expressed his fear of reaching a stage where “people die in the street due to lack of places in hospitals to care for the injured, or that there is an exchange between one person and another.”
The decision to complete the lockdown includes a curfew from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., and a return to work with the single and double car decision during the lockdown period with traffic ban on Sunday.
The decision excluded the Beirut International Airport and a number of vital sectors such as hospitals, clinics, bakeries, bakeries and associations that provide health and food services, as well as everything related to the storage and manufacture of food and agricultural products.
The closure decision, which met with objections from various economic sectors, especially merchants and industrialists, was “inevitable”, according to the opinion of the head of the Parliamentary Health Commission, Representative Assem Araji. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, he pointed out that this period will allow the medical sector to “catch its breath”, since in two weeks work will be done to close the issue of pressure on private hospitals “to assign Corona departments, as well as increasing the number of beds in public hospitals and increasing the number of beds “. Intensive care for more than 600 beds, and doubling the number of isolation beds to exceed 1,200 beds ”so that this sector can regain preparedness in case the epidemic intensifies in the coming months.
Araji notes that the health sector in Lebanon, as it has been made known, is in a state of “extreme fatigue.” There are currently 15 doctors in intensive care and about 250 more in quarantine, in addition to the fact that the total number of nurses who were infected with “Corona” exceeded 1150, indicating that The number of injuries in the health sector has been at a rate fast recently, prompting hospitals and concerned unions to demand a complete shutdown.
Araji affirms that it would have been better to go to a general confinement for a month, but reaching two weeks is still good, pointing out that the most important thing in this matter is the commitment to the measures on the part of the citizens and that all the ministries involved they assume their responsibilities so that the closure is successful in order to avoid the repetition of previous experiences and so that we do not “bear the losses of the Economically useless Lebanon, so we lose health and economic life”.
In this context, a security source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that there will be rigor in monitoring compliance with the general closure decision, as was the case with the first closure, and that arrest records will be drawn up for offenders, especially because the epidemiological situation is not at all complacent.
It is noteworthy that Lebanon is experiencing a state of general mobilization imposed since March 15, with a series of closures ranging from general to partial, intermittent and regional (the closure of certain areas).
The first complete shutdown was last March and lasted about 3 months, after which the country was reopened in stages, as well as the airport reopened, and then the government partially closed the country again between July 30 and on August 3, coinciding with the Eid al-Adha holiday.
In addition, more than a month ago a regional closure was adopted, which did not produce the desired result, as confirmed more than once by the Ministry of Health.
With the exception of the first closure, the closings witnessed laxity and lack of rigor on the part of the competent authorities and a lack of commitment from the public, especially in the face of difficult economic conditions. In this context, the Prime Minister indicated that an amount of 400 thousand pounds per month (about $ 250 at the official exchange rate and less than $ 50, according to the black market price) will be paid for 240,000 families, and the matter will continue until the end of this year.
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