BEIRUT (AP) – The World Bank on Tuesday threatened to suspend funding for coronavirus vaccines in Lebanon while investigating the suspect of favoritism amid allegations that lawmakers were inoculated in parliament without prior approval.
A senior Lebanese official overseeing the launch of the vaccine called it “scandalous” and threatened to leave office amid a clamor on social media by Lebanese deeply distrustful of their notoriously corrupt politicians.
The World Bank is the main funder of Lebanon’s coronavirus campaign and has approved $ 34 million to pay for vaccines to 2 million people. The suspension of assistance would have serious implications for the government with cash problems, which is going through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis and depends on foreign assistance.
The vaccination campaign began on February 14 and Lebanon has so far received close to 60,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The World Bank and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have signed an agreement for independent control of the coronavirus vaccination campaign in Lebanon. Decades of corruption and mismanagement have brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy and collapse.
“There were many rapes that took place in the vaccination centers,” said Sharaf Abu Sharaf, president of the Lebanese Medical Association. He said the violations included vaccinating people who were not registered or were not included in the first phase of the campaign.
Lebanese expected the deployment of vaccines to be full of corruption and rape, but news of the vaccination of lawmakers as a political group in a building used by the legislature sparked further outrage among the country’s population on Monday.
Abdul Rahman Bizri, who heads the committee overseeing the vaccination campaign, had planned to resign in protest on Tuesday, but later changed his mind, saying his committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday to follow up on the case.
He demanded an explanation from the legislature.
“What has happened today is outrageous and should not be repeated,” Bizri said. “There is no political priority.”
Bizri said the national vaccination plan requires people to receive shots at predetermined centers without favoritism, adding that before holding the press conference he discussed the matter with the World Bank regional director.
“Everyone has to register and wait their turn! #nowasta, ”he tweeted earlier to World Bank regional director Saroj Kumar Jha. He used a Lebanese term meaning there should be no nepotism.
Parliament Secretary-General Adnan Daher was quoted by state media as denying that the 16 lawmakers had skipped the line, which prioritises medical workers and residents over the age of 75. Daher said all lawmakers who received an inoculation had registered and were properly in line.
Some of the lawmakers inoculated on Tuesday are under 75, according to names circulating in local media, including 71-year-old Deputy Speaker of Parliament Elie Ferzli. Ferzli said in a tweet that he registered to get the vaccine in late January.
In January, the Lebanese government launched a digital coronavirus vaccination registration platform for residents in the nation.
Later on Tuesday, a statement issued by the presidency said President Michel Aoun, 86, as well as his wife and ten people around him, also received their vaccines according to the online vaccination platform. .
The World Bank “may suspend vaccine funding and support for the COVID19 response across Lebanon!” Jha tweeted Tuesday before. “I call on everyone, I mean everyone, regardless of your position, please sign up and wait your turn.”
Jha said the vaccination plan “does not agree with the national plan” agreed with the World Bank and “we would record it (as) non-compliance with the terms and conditions agreed with us for a fair and equitable vaccination.”
Lebanon, a country of 6 million people, including one million Syrian refugees, has reported more than 356,000 cases of coronavirus and 4,387 deaths since the first case was reported in February last year.
A recent increase in cases has overwhelmed hospitals that are already struggling to cope with the country’s severe financial crisis.