World Bank threatens to suspend Lebanon coronavirus funding over vaccine row

World Bank threatens to suspend Lebanon coronavirus funding over vaccine row

The World Bank has threatened to suspend financing Lebanon's coronavirus vaccine rollout amid allegations members of parliament “skipped the line” and were inoculated without registering in advance.Separately Dr Abdul Rahman Bizr,  Lebanese head of the committee supervising the vaccine campaign, signalled he would resign saying he was not informed that the MPs and parliamentary staff had received the vaccine on Tuesday.If the World Bank does pull its funding it would deal a crushing blow to Lebanon as it has struggled to contain the coronavirus epidemic while limping through an unprecedented economic crisis.The World Bank said last month it approved $34 million to help pay for vaccines for Lebanon that will inoculate over 2 million people, around a third of the population which includes a million Syrian refugees. The vaccination campaign in the country began two weeks ago on Valentine's Day and Lebanon has so far received nearly 60,000 shots of Pfizer-BioNTech ."Everyone has to register and wait for their turn! “ the World Bank's regional director Saroj Kumar Jha tweeted, using the hashtag “No Wasta” an Arabic term meaning that there should not be nepotism, power or influence used to get a jab.He added: the World Bank "may suspend financing