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A sign that reads “Beirut” is seen among the Christmas decorations in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on December 27, 2020.
Image Credit: Reuters
Beirut: Lebanon’s hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, doctors warned Saturday, as infection rates spike in the wake of the year-end holidays. The national Covid-19 task force will meet later the same day and is expected to advise a three-week shutdown, said Petra Khoury, its boss.
Lebanon, with a population of around six million, has recorded 183,888 coronavirus cases, including 1,466 deaths, since February. On Thursday, it reached a daily record of more than 3,500 new cases.
In what he called a “catastrophic” situation, Sleiman Haroun, head of the Private Hospitals Union, said that “the country’s 50 private hospitals receiving Covid-19 patients are now almost full.” They have a total of 850 beds, including 300 in intensive care units, Haroun said. “Patients are now waiting in line … waiting for a bed to be free,” he told AFP.
After imposing strict restrictions in November to combat the spread of the pandemic, the government relaxed the rules. Before the December holidays, the government delayed the night curfew to 3:00 a.m. and allowed nightclubs and bars to reopen.
This sparked criticism from health professionals who warned that bed occupancy in intensive care units was being critically depleted. “The problem is that once a patient goes into intensive care, they stay there for three weeks,” Khoury said.
The “gatherings and private parties” of the December Christmas season have fueled a dramatic spike in cases, Khoury said. “Over the past three weeks, the occupancy rate of intensive care units has increased by 10 percent,” bringing the occupancy of hospital beds in Beirut to more than 90 percent of capacity.
Lebanon has been dealing with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. The Lebanese pound has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar on the black market, prompting prices to skyrocket. More than half the population is trapped in poverty, according to the United Nations.
Beirut was also hit by an August 4 explosion at its port that killed more than 200 people and devastated parts of the capital. “Several hospitals have asked us not to transfer patients to them,” the president of the Lebanese Red Cross, Georges Kettaneh, told AFP.
Instead, the Red Cross was taking patients to Bekaa in the east or Nabatiyeh in the south.
Lebanon expects to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines in February from Pfizer-BioNTech.
