Lebanese pharmaceutical company Pharmaline will import one million doses of the Sputnik V Covid19 vaccine under the authorisation of the Ministry of Public Health.
The batch is expected to arrive in the coming days and will be enough to vaccinate 500,000 people in the country of six million residents, including refugees.
Distribution of the vaccines will be administered by the health ministry, said Nicholas Nahas, a Lebanese member of parliament and independent member of the board of directors of Malia Group, under which Pharmaline operates.
Mr Nahas told The National that the price of the vaccine on the market will be "very competitive". Government-provided vaccines are being administered free of charge.
Lebanon is struggling with slow vaccine administration – only about 3 per cent of the population has received a dose.
The health ministry said it plans to inoculate up to 80 per cent of the population by the end of 2021.
Lebanon's parliamentary health committee met on Thursday with the health minister, the head of Lebanon's vaccination campaign, a WHO representative, and representatives for international vaccine manufacturers to discuss how to speed up the country's vaccination drive.
"We need to vaccinate up to 85 per cent of the population to reach herd immunity," said Assem Araji, head of Lebanon's parliamentary health committee. "People should adhere to safety measures as well."
As of Thursday night, 952,576 people were registered for the vaccine on Lebanon's interministerial platform; 127,261 vaccines have been administered, and 36,966 people received both doses of the vaccine.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Royal Birkdale Golf Course
Location: Southport, Merseyside, England
Established: 1889
Type: Private
Total holes: 18
Easter%20Sunday
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Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
Match info
Uefa Nations League A Group 4
England 2 (Lingard 78', Kane 85')
Croatia 1 (Kramaric 57')
Man of the match: Harry Kane (England)
Squad for first two ODIs
Kohli (c), Rohit, Dhawan, Rayudu, Pandey, Dhoni (wk), Pant, Jadeja, Chahal, Kuldeep, Khaleel, Shami, Thakur, Rahul.
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
More from our neighbourhood series:
GOODBYE%20JULIA
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Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Vines - In Miracle Land
Two stars