Covid crisis in Lebanon
First Case: date and origin
February 21st, 2020
Iran, a 45 year old woman
First reaction
Government
Declared medical emergency state
Two week closure of Beirut Airport
Two week lock-down
Extended! Many times
March 2020
Aggravation
August 4th, 2020
Huge explosion
Beirut Port
Cause is still unknown!
Economic Impact
Loss of thousands of job opportunities
Degradation of 3 main fields
Education
Schools
Were not technically ready to give online classes
Bad internet connection in Lebanon
Classes were very inconsistent
Official exams did not take place
Universities
Minister of health gave shutting down instruction
Universities said it was "unnecessary panic" and stayed open
Were forced to shut down in
Internet connection problems => courses were disrupted
Economy
Banks
Inflation became even worse
Salaries became obsolete
NGOs gave food packages but limited
Purchasing power
People ran to make provisions
Medical
In Lebanon it is easy to get a drug without prescription
Penury of Covid treating drugs
Essentials
Prices became delusional
Poverty rose
Food quality dropped
New health problems rose
Electricity
Gas provisions were also made
Gas prices rose
Public electricity became almost unavailable
Private generators took the opportunity and made extraordinary benefits
Electricity bills became very high
Some people stopped their subscriptions
Rotten food, no heating in the winter and no coolness in the summer, hygiene issues, badly stored drugs...
New health problems rose
Some people kept their expensive subscription
Extremely high prices : 1 subscription = 1 month salary
Gas prices became unstable
Gas stations closed because price changes every hour (to make profits)
Queues to get gas
Job market
Non-payments of salaries
Loss of opportunities
Non replacement of absent workers
International actors reactions
Support from
WHO
World Bank
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
UN Relief and Works Agency
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UNICEF, and International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Sensitive topic in Lebanon: refugees
International actors worked on their vaccination
Discriminations in access to health, poverty, threats...
Vaccination
Ministry of Health led by Dr AbdulRahman BIZRI
Made an amazing job at trying to keep the corruption out of the vaccination campaign
Despite this progress, lacks the resources and the staff to fully operationalise and implement the national plan.
Private and nongovernmental actors fill the gaps.
Convinced a rather stubborn population that a vaccine is the only answer
Went surprisingly well !
Despite severe economic constraints, Lebanon secured 6.3 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, largely due to unprecedented support from the international community
2 things to keep in mind
Lebanon has a very small population: 6 million
Everything affects everyone very quickly
Lebanon was already in a huge economic crisis when Covid started
That crisis had been ongoing since 2019
That crisis had SEVERELY affected the Health System