First Covid-19 vaccines land in Lebanon

The country will begin a nationwide inoculation campaign on Sunday amid surge in cases

Lebanon's caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan administers a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a member of the healthcare staff at the Rafik Hariri Hospital in the capital Beirut as the country started its inoculation campaign on Sunday. AFP

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab talks to reporters at the Rafik Hariri Hospital in the capital Beirut after the country started its Covid-19 inoculation campaign with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Sunday. AFP

A health worker gets the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus disease at Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday. EPA

Lebanese artist Salah Tizani, 93, also known as Abou Salim, gets the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus at Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut on Sunday. EPA

A member of the healthcare staff prepares a dose of the Covid-19 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Rafik Hariri Hospital in the capital Beirut, as Lebanon's inoculation campaign got under way on Sunday. AFP

A janitor disinfects a vaccine centre at St George hospital as Lebanon's Covid-19 inoculation campaign got under way on Sunday. Elizabeth Fitt for The National

A new vaccine centre is set up at St George hospital in Beirut as Lebanon's Covid-19 inoculation campaign got under way on Sunday. Elizabeth Fitt for The National

Hamad Hasan, Lebanon's Minister for Health visits a new vaccine centre at St George hospital in Beirut. Elizabeth Fitt for The National

A janitor disinfects surfaces and floors as a new vaccine centre is set up at St George hospital in preparation for start of the inoculation campaign on Sunday. Elizabeth Fitt for The National

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan, visits a Covid-19 vaccination centre at St George hospital, a day before the start of the inoculation campaign on Sunday. Elizabeth Fitt for The National

Lebanon's first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines arrives at Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut on February 13, 2021. EPA

Lebanon's first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines is offloaded at Rafik Hariri International Airport. EPA

Workers stand next to boxes of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut on February 13, 2021. AP Photo

The first batch of the shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-9 vaccine is offloaded from a plane at Beirut's international airport. Reuters

Health Minister Hamad Hassan speaks to media near the aircraft that brought the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses on Saturday. Reuters

Lebanon received its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines on Saturday afternoon.

A plane carrying 28,500 Pfizer-BioNTech shots landed in Beirut, with nationwide inoculations set to begin on Sunday.

"Starting vaccinations is very important, especially as we have a lot of daily cases and new deaths every day," Assem Araji, head of the Public Health Parliament Committee, told The National.

“The ICUs in Lebanon are full of Covid-19 patients in critical condition.”

Lebanon has been battling a surge in Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the year after a holiday period with nearly no restrictions.

The number of deaths in January alone surpassed those for the whole of 2020.

A strict 25-day lockdown was imposed last month and the country is now slowly opening up.

Experts and government officials believe the vaccination campaign will help to bring coronavirus cases down and save lives, although the take-up is low.

Fewer than half a million people have signed up for the vaccine so far in a country of about six million people. For the vaccine to have a nationwide effect, a large part of the population must get inoculated.

"I am not worried about this," Mr Araji told The National. "Once we begin inoculations, people will feel more comfortable as they see there are no major side effects to the vaccine and they will ask for it."

Lebanese Public Health Minister Hamad Hassan was  at the airport when the first batch of vaccines arrived.

He said he hoped to persuade “the Prime Minister” to have the shot on Sunday to encourage Lebanese to be immunised.

He did not specify whether he was referring to prime minister-designate Saad Hariri or caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab.

“We are trying to convince one prominent politician to participate tomorrow because it will have a positive effect nationwide,” Mr Hassan said.

He faced a backlash earlier this year after he said the president, the speaker and the prime minister would be the first to have the coronavirus shot when it arrived in Lebanon.

The country’s political class has come under fire since the onset of a mass protest movement in October 2019.

The ongoing economic crisis, a deadly explosion at the Beirut port last year and the recent surge in Covid-19 cases compounded popular distrust of the Lebanese leadership.

Medical experts anticipate inoculation will have a positive outcome on at least one of Lebanon’s crises.

Dr Eid Azar, an infectious disease specialist and chief of staff at Beirut’s Saint-Georges Hospital aims to vaccinate 700 people there daily beginning tomorrow.

"Vaccines are the biggest hope we have, but I don't expect a magic effect," he told The National.

Mass inoculation will tamper the intensity of the disease and lower the number of cases, Mr Azar says, but the effects will take “at least a couple of months” to manifest.

"We are hoping to vaccinate as many people as we can."