Lebanon’s health minister has called for a two-week lockdown as he warned on Monday that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat coronavirus patients amid rising virus cases in the wake of the deadly Beirut blast.
Hamad Hasan called for a “general alert” over the rapid rise in cases over the last two weeks with Sunday marking the highest single-day rise so far with 439 new cases as the death toll passed 100.
"Public and private hospitals in the capital, in particular, have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators," caretaker health minister Hamad Hassan told a press conference.
"We are on the brink, we don't have the luxury to take our time," he warned, calling for authorities to take the "hard decision" to impose a new two-week lockdown to stem the spread of the virus.
Mr Hassan told Reuters that the government was not looking to close the country’s airport yet but said that many of the new cases were also coming from overseas.
"The real danger is the spread within society," he said. "Everyone must be on high alert and take the strictest prevention measures."
Coronavirus around the Middle East
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Syrians ride a motorbike past a mural painted as part of an awareness campaign by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) intitative, bearing instructions on protection from COVID-19 in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province, after a spike in infections in the area. AFP -
A Syrian man rides a bicycle past a mural painted as part of an awareness campaign by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) intitative, bearing instructions on protection from COVID-19 in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province, after a spike in infections in the area. AFP -
Iraqi printing business owner Hossam al-Aidani adjusts a protective mask bearing a wedding invitation on a bridal shop mannequin amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in the southern port city of Basra. Al-Aidani's small business almost closed-down due to the restrictions amid the novel coronavirus crisis. But his idea to print invitations on protective masks allowed its survival, selling 50 per wedding, especially in the Shiite-majority southern Iraq, where marriage celebrations are to be held before the beginning of the Muslim mourning month of Muharram, at the end of August. AFP -
Iraqi printing business owner Hossam al-Aidani prepares to print wedding invites on protective masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic at his shop in the southern port city of Basra. AFP -
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus, speaks to the media in Ayder village in the Black Sea city of Rize, Turkey. Turkey's health minister says the number of new COVID-19 infections Saturday has hit its highest in 45 days and announced 1,256 new cases. AP -
People walk on a bridge in the Camlihemsin district of Rize, Turkey. Turkish authorities have now allowed the reopening of restaurants, cafes, parks and beaches, as well as lifting the ban on inter-city travel, as the country eases the restrictions it had imposed in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19. EPA -
A boy wearing a protective face mask looks through a car window amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS -
Jordanian King Abdullah II (C-L) accompanied by his wife Queen Rania (C-R), as they and their entourage are clad in masks due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, while inaugurating a new emergency hospital in the capital Amman. AFP -
A Kuwaiti woman wearing a protective mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic feeds pigeons at a square in Kuwait City. AFP
The rise comes after the disaster – which killed 177 people and wounded more than 6,500, many by falling debris and flying glass as windows shattered – caused pandemonium in the capital's already pandemic-stretched hospitals.
The total number of infections is now over 8,880, including 103 deaths since the start of the outbreak in February.
A previously planned lockdown was scrapped in the wake of the explosion.
"In the capital, the intensive care units and the departments set up for the coronavirus in public hospitals are full," the minister told Voice of Lebanon radio earlier.
"In most private hospitals that receive coronavirus patients, intensive care unit beds are occupied" already by COVID-19 patients, he added.
The minister said the situation was exacerbated after several Beirut hospitals were hit by the colossal port explosion and left "out of service".
The World Health Organization on August 12 said more than half of 55 healthcare facilities evaluated by the agency were "non-functional," three major hospitals were out of operation and another three were running at well below normal capacity.
The minister said the chaos in Beirut after the blast, Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, made it difficult to enforce compliance with pandemic precautionary and preventive measures.
"Our ability to control behaviour in the face of the virus is more limited," the minister said.
He cited in particular "families going to hospitals to look for the wounded or missing," but also the mobilisation of healthcare workers and citizens to seek or provide aid after the blast.
The explosion was caused by a fire in a warehouse where, according to the authorities, a huge amount of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years.
Since the explosion, thousands of volunteers have helped clean up rubble-strewn streets and distribute aid, while protesters have taken to the streets against the government, which is widely blamed for the negligence that led to the explosion.
Health officials have warned that the chaos caused by the blast risked leading to a further spike in infections.
The head of a major public hospital, Firass Abiad, has cautioned that, as attention has shifted away from the pandemic after the explosion disaster, "we cannot afford to allow the virus to go unchecked".
