BEIRUTE (AP) – It was a choice between containing a spiraling virus outbreak and resurrecting a dying economy in a country that experienced a constant financial and economic collapse last year. Lebanese authorities chose the latter.
Now, patients with viruses who struggle to breathe wait outside hospitals – waiting for a bed or even a chair to open. Ordinary people share contact lists of oxygen providers on social media as critical gas becomes scarce and the sound of ambulances transporting patients echoes through Beirut. About 500 of Lebanon’s 14,000 doctors have left the country plagued by the crisis in recent months, according to the Medical Association, putting more pressure on the hospital’s existing staff.
On Thursday, Lebanese authorities changed the way: they began to impose an 11-day national shutdown and 24-hour curfew, hoping to slow the spread of coronavirus infections that went out of control after the holiday period.
The curfew is the most rigid measure that Lebanon has taken since the beginning of the pandemic.
Previous terminations had more flexible rules and were misapplied. Now, residents are not allowed to leave the house, except for a defined set of reasons, including going to the bakery, pharmacy, doctor’s office, hospital or airport – and for the first time, they must apply for a license before doing these things. Even supermarkets can only open for delivery.
Although Lebanon still managed to keep cases at an average of less than 100 a day until August, it now leads the Arab world in number of cases per million people. Today, the number of daily deaths from COVID-19 is more than 13 times what it was in July. On January 9, more than 5,400 infections were reported, a record for the small country.
On Thursday, Lebanon recorded a new daily record of 41 deaths, bringing the total number of registered cases to almost 237,200 and 1,781 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
While its neighbors are starting to vaccinate their populations – including Israel, whose campaign promises to be among the fastest in the world – Lebanon has yet to guarantee the first vaccine shipment. Once a leader in the health sector among countries in the Middle East, Lebanon has been prevented from obtaining vaccines due to repeated bureaucratic delays, partly due to the fact that it has an interim government.
Parliament is due to meet on Friday to vote on a bill that allows the import of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with the first deliveries scheduled to arrive next month.
“This is the result of deliberate decisions made by irresponsible and immoral politicians,” said Sami Hanna, a 42-year-old businessman who was waiting for his turn to enter a pharmacy earlier this week in search of painkillers, antidepressants and blood pressure. blood pressure for your elderly parents.
“That’s how we spend our days now, begging,” he said, adding that his next mission was to look for bread, which was out of stock because of the shopping panic before curfew. “It’s too late . “
The increase in coronavirus cases began in late August, a few weeks after the big explosion in the port of Beirut that destroyed parts of the capital, including several hospitals with patients with viruses.
The explosion was caused by a fire that detonated nearly three tons of poorly stored ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a port warehouse for years – the kind of mismanagement that is typical of a corrupt political class that fails to provide even basic services for your people.
The virus increased in the chaos of flooded hospitals, funerals and protests that followed.
To further complicate efforts to control the virus, politicians were unable to reach an agreement on a new government, as the old one resigned in the wake of the port explosion, effectively ensuring that the country continues to disintegrate.
But in December, while most governments around the world tightened the roadblocks, Lebanon did the opposite, allowing restaurants and nightclubs to reopen with virtually no restrictions. It is estimated that 80,000 expatriates flocked to the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year with their loved ones – many of them Lebanese who stopped visiting in the summer because of the devastation caused by the explosion.
“The holiday season should be the time for a blockade. The season of crowds, shopping and parties, ”said Hanna Azar, owner of a money transfer and telephone store. “They opened to allow dollars to enter the country and now they want to close. Especially in this economic crisis, people have no money to eat. ”
Many hospitals have already reached maximum capacity for patients with coronavirus. Some were left without beds, oxygen tanks and fans. Others have suspended elective surgery.
Last week, Lebanon imposed a national 25-day blockade and night curfew to limit the spread of the virus, but many sectors were exempt and enforcement was lax, as in the past. Many companies, including beauty salons, welcomed customers behind closed shop windows. In some areas of northern and southern Lebanon, everything went smoothly.
With hospitals on the brink of collapse, the government ordered a nationwide curfew starting on Thursday, unleashing three days of confusion as crowds of shoppers emptied supermarket and bakery shelves.
On Thursday, police controlled checkpoints across the country, checking drivers’ permission to travel.
Halim Shebaya, a political analyst, said the government did not yet have a clear strategy and warned that it would be difficult to reduce the numbers so late in the game.
“The main problem now is the lack of trust in the government and the authorities, and managing a pandemic requires the presence of public trust in the measures taken by the authorities,” he said.
Still, Rabih Torbay, who heads Project HOPE, a global international health and humanitarian organization, said time is of the essence and urged authorities to take any steps that can help to stop infections.
“Every day that passes the country is sliding further and further into the abyss,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Fadi Tawil and Bilal Hussein contributed reports.