Quarantine centers bankrupt municipalities: this is how the state “copes” with the virus!

As soon as the Corona counter was flooded with wounded, he began to think about the confrontation “kit”. It was difficult to leave the matter in the hands of the hospitals and they could barely cope with cases that required urgent intervention. At the same time, there were many injured people who needed care without the hassle of medical intervention. Hence, the government’s plan was to create quarantine centers within municipal domains, as a measure to relieve pressure on the hospital sector. Under the plan, municipalities were to secure adequate quarantine centers for infected and suspected infected people. Therefore, quarantine centers have been established in several large municipalities, including one within Ghobeiry Municipality.

When the center began to function at the end of last July, the promise was that “the municipalities will not be left alone in this matter,” according to Mayor Maan al-Khalil. On this basis, “We rented a building for a monthly allowance of 70 million Syrian pounds”, not to mention tracking the diaries of those medically quarantined, in terms of securing food and drink, and the daily tracking of people isolated in their homes within the municipality.
The center entered its second month with another 70 million, which the municipality deducted from its budget. During that period, he sent books to the interested authorities, from the Committee for the Monitoring of Preventive Measures and Coronavirus Measures to the Ministries of Health and Interior and the Government of Mount Lebanon, but received no response. According to Hebron, “the municipalities have borne this burden, within the framework of a government mandate through the Interior Ministry, and it was not taken into account that we would pay.” But this is what happened. The municipalities were forced to face the coronavirus alone within their scope, and “only a team of nurses assigned by the World Health Organization” received support. Otherwise, “everything was required of us.” The Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities, to which the municipalities are allegedly subordinate, did not respond to any of the correspondence.

Al-Ghobeiry Municipality announced the closure of the stone center in its area on the 20th of this month

Today, municipalities are asking the ministry to disburse their quotas (the last payment they received was for accounts from 2017) to meet the requirements of the quarantine centers. As for the Ministry of Public Health, it considers these centers “among the tasks of the municipalities, and it is assumed that it will bring them support for the activities of the region.”
As the municipalities were left alone in the fight, some decided to abandon the mission because they could not pay the expenses of the quarantine centers. In this context, Hebron declared that the date of the twentieth of this month “will be the last working day in the center, since we can no longer rent the building and pay the workers’ fees and the needs of those in quarantine.” Also, “other centers will do it,” he says, referring to his contact with other municipalities that are going through the same conditions.

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