Lebanon Queues Up for Russian COVID-19 Vaccine

Health Minister Hamad Hassan is set to lead a crisis cell meeting on coronavirus on Friday, after remarks that Lebanon made an agreement with the World Health Organization to reserve Lebanon’s share of a possible Russian COVID-19 vaccine.

Lebanon “made an agreement with the World Health Organization to reserve Lebanon's share of the possible COVID-19 vaccine,” the minister said in televised remarks.

He added that “coordination is underway with Russia to secure a package of the Russian vaccine,” and that Lebanon will pay for that from the World Bank loan.

Hassan is expected to chair a crisis cell meeting at noon Friday to discuss the developments.

Russia said on Thursday it would start clinical trials of its controversial coronavirus vaccine next week, involving tens of thousands of people.

The drug, Sputnik V, has already been hailed by Russian officials as a success even as experts questioned the rigor of the testing regime.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin had stated that “he will make every effort to secure the Russian COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to Lebanon."

Lebanon is to partially close down for two weeks from Friday to stem a string of record daily infection rates that have brought the number of COVID-19 cases to 10,952, including 113 deaths.

Authorities fear Lebanon's fragile health sector would struggle to cope with a further spike in COVID-19 cases, especially after some hospitals near the port were damaged in the explosion.

They have said the new lockdown measures, which include a nighttime curfew from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) to 6:00 am (0300 GMT), will not affect the clean-up or aid effort in areas ravaged by the blast.

The stay-at-home order from Friday is only the latest such decision after a months-long lockdown from mid-March.

It came on the heels of a dire economic crisis since last year that has trapped people's savings in banks, sent food prices soaring and caused tens of thousands to lose their jobs or a large part of their income.

Even before the explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port on August 4 sparked popular rage against official negligence, Lebanon's crisis had doubled poverty rates to more than half of the population, according to UN estimates.