BEIRUT (AP) – It was a choice between containing a spiraling virus outbreak and resurrecting a dying economy in a country that has had a steady economic and financial downturn over the past year. The Lebanese authorities chose the latter.
Now, patients with viruses struggling to breathe are waiting outside hospitals, hoping a bed or even a chair will open. Ordinary people share contact lists of oxygen suppliers on social media as critical gas becomes scarce and the sound of ambulances carrying bad echoes to Beirut. About 500 of Lebanon’s 14,000 doctors have left the country in the midst of a crisis in recent months, according to the Order of Physicians, putting new pressure on existing hospital staff.
On Thursday, the Lebanese authorities turned elsewhere: they began to apply an eleven-day national strike and a curfew all day, hoping to achieve the spread of coronavirus infections that are they escape control after the holiday period.
The curfew is the strictest measure Lebanon has taken since the beginning of the pandemic.
Previous stops had looser rules and were not misapplied. Now, residents cannot leave their homes, except for a number of definite reasons, such as going to the bakery, pharmacy, doctor’s office, hospital, or airport, and for the first time they must apply for a permit before doing these things. Even supermarkets can only open by delivery.
While somehow Lebanon still managed to keep cases at an average of less than 100 per day until August, it now leads the Arab world in the 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 nearly 237,200 and 1,781 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
As its neighbors begin vaccinating their populations, including Israel, whose campaign promises to be one of the fastest in the world, Lebanon has yet to get a first batch of shots. Once a leader in the health sector among Middle Eastern countries, Lebanon has been hampered in its efforts to get vaccines for repeated bureaucratic delays, in part because it has an interim government.
Parliament is expected to meet on Friday to vote on a bill to import the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the first deliveries are expected to arrive next month.
“This is the result of deliberate decisions by irresponsible and immoral politicians,” said Sami Hanna, a 42-year-old businessman who was waiting his turn to enter a pharmacy earlier this week, looking for painkillers. antidepressants and blood pressure medication for their elderly parents.
“So we spend our days asking for it now,” he said, adding that his next mission was to look for bread, which was exhausted due to the panic purchase before the curfew was installed. “It’s too late.”
The rise in coronavirus cases began in late August, just weeks after the massive explosion in the port of Beirut that destroyed parts of the capital, including several hospitals with virus patients.
The blast was caused by a fire that detonated nearly three tons of poorly stored ammonium nitrate that had been sitting in a port warehouse for years, the kind of mismanagement that is typical of a corrupt political class that does not even provide only basic services for their.
The virus escalated into the chaos of flooded hospitals, funerals and subsequent protests.
Further complicating efforts to curb the virus, politicians have not been able to agree on a new government since the old one resigned following the port explosion, effectively ensuring the country continues to disintegrate.
But in December, as most governments around the world tightened their closures, Lebanon went the other way, allowing restaurants and nightclubs to reopen with little restrictions. . An estimated 80,000 expatriates went to the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year with their loved ones, many of them Lebanese who stopped visiting in the summer due to the devastation caused by the explosion.
“The holiday season should have been the closing time. The season of crowds, shopping and parties,” said Hanna Azar, owner of a money and phone transfer store. “They opened it to allow dollars to enter the country and now they want to close. Especially in this economic crisis, people don’t have money to eat.”
Many hospitals have already reached maximum capacity for coronavirus patients. Some have run out of beds, oxygen tanks and fans. Others have stopped elective surgeries.
Last week, Lebanon imposed a 25-day national closure and a night curfew to limit the spread of the virus, but many sectors were exempt and the application was lax, as in the past. Many companies, including hairdressers, welcomed customers behind closed windows. In some areas of northern and southern Lebanon, it was normal.
With hospitals on the verge of collapse, the government ordered an 11-day national curfew starting Thursday, causing three days of chaos as crowds of shoppers emptied shelves in supermarkets and bakeries.
On Thursday, police had crews across the country, checking drivers ’permission to be on the road.
Halim Shebaya, a political analyst, said the government does not yet have a clear strategy and warned that it would be difficult to reduce the figures until the end of the game.
“The main issue now is the lack of confidence in the government and the authorities and the management of a pandemic requires the presence of public confidence in the measures taken by the authorities,” he said.
Still, Rabih Torbay, who heads Project HOPE, an international health and humanitarian organization, said time is of the essence and urged authorities to take any steps that could help curb infections.
“Every day that passes through the country slides more into the abyss,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Fadi Tawil and Bilal Hussein contributed to the information.