Lebanon enters two-week lockdown as Covid-19 cases surge

Extended curfews and business closures enforced as hospitals run out of space

Empty roads along Beirut's Ramlet Al Bayda seafront after Lebanon imposed a lockdown from November 14-30 to contain coronavirus infections. EPA

Lebanon entered a new two-week lockdown on Saturday as hospitals said they were running out of space for new Covid-19 patients.

The head of Lebanon’s largest public hospital  tweeted on Saturday that he was unable to accept the transfer of patients from other hospitals in the past days “due to full occupancy”.

“In today’s morning report, six Covid cases, four in critical condition, are admitted but still in the emergency department, waiting for a vacant bed,” said Firass Abiad, director of Rafik Hariri University Hospital.

Dr Abiad tweeted that with 73 deaths as a result of Covid-19 last week, Lebanon recorded its highest weekly death rate since the beginning of the pandemic.

Starting Saturday, a night-time curfew was extended from 5pm to 5am, instead of 9pm to 5am. Odd and even number-plate cars will be allowed on the roads on alternate days. The airport, as well as supermarkets and pharmacies, remain open.

Gyms, malls and restaurants, which used to be able to operate at 50 per cent capacity, are closed. Supermarkets and restaurants can continue delivering food and grocery items to homes, except on Sundays.

Caretaker interior minister Mohammad Fahmi caused a public outcry when he said during a live TV interview on Friday that women should cook more on Sundays instead of ordering food. “It’s good for health and helps lose weight,” he said.

Activists accused Mr Fahmi of misogyny.

“No thanks, I have better things to do. Patriarchy alive and well in Lebanon,” tweeted Human Rights Watch Lebanon researcher Aya Majzoub.

The last time Lebanon experienced such measures was in March and April, at the start of the pandemic in the country.

Caretaker health minister Hamad Hassan told local television station LBCI that the rate of compliance with the new confinement measures reached 90 per cent across the country on Saturday.

The total number of Covid-19 cases passed 100,000 on Thursday, with 775 deaths in total.

The head of the parliamentary health committee told The National early in November that "between 90 and 95 per cent of intensive care unit beds for coronavirus patients are full".

At the time, MP Assem Araji said that a two-week lockdown was needed so that hospitals could increase their capacity of ICU beds, which currently number about 300. He warned that Lebanon’s medical sector was “most likely going to collapse”.

Lebanese hospitals are reeling from a year-long financial crisis that has limited their ability to import medical equipment. The state is also late on payments to private hospitals.

Sleiman Haroun, the head of the syndicate of private hospitals, told Human Rights Watch in March that the government owed private hospitals an estimated $1.3 billion in unpaid bills since 2011.

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