Lebanon scores high marks on coronavirus front
BEIRUT: Even as it scrambles to avoid economic collapse, Lebanon has recorded some of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the Middle East since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The health ministry has warned it is too early to cry victory, but a three-month lockdown is gradually being lifted.
The first confirmed case was reported on Feb.21 among a group who flew in from a pilgrimage in hard-hit Iran.
Projections on the spread of the pandemic in a country that only had 128 beds available for coronavirus patients were bleak, with forecasts putting the death toll in the hundreds.
By June 3, however, the country of six million had only recorded 1,256 cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths.
Lebanon’s deaths per million are among the lowest in the region − along with others including Jordan and Tunisia − and far below those of Iran, Turkey, Israel and several Gulf states.
“If we compare our infection rate per million inhabitants and our mortality rate, we are faring much better than countries around us,” Souha Kanj, head of the infectious diseases department at the American University of Beirut, said.
While some cases have gone unreported and the scale of testing remains limited, health experts agree that major outbreaks could not have gone unnoticed.
Most new infections were reported among Lebanese recently repatriated on special flights and the authorities have only recorded two deaths over the past month.
Lebanon was faster than most other countries to decide on a lockdown.
By the end of February, schools were closed, and the airport and most bars and restaurants soon follow suit.
“We had some good preparation already in place at the beginning,” Firass Abiad, who heads the Rafik Hariri Hospital, the main public health facility in Beirut, said.
Tests were quickly set up at the airport and a tracing unit at the health ministry was rapidly created to monitor and contain the virus.
At the peak of the restrictions, a nighttime curfew starting at 7:00 pm was slapped on the country and daytime traffic allowed only under conditions with an alternate license plate policy.
Wearing a mask was made compulsory on the street, fines were handed down to businesses that did not enforce social distancing and driving was banned altogether on Sundays.