Lebanon receives Russian COVID-19 vaccines imported by private sector

Lebanon receives Russian COVID-19 vaccines imported by private sector

Author: APID: 1616748384729642500Fri, 2021-03-26 08:20

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday received a first batch of Russian vaccines imported by the private sector to help speed up the vaccination campaign against coronavirus in the small country hit by an unprecedented economic crisis.

Some 50,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine arrived at Beirut airport around midnight, making Lebanon one of few nations where the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is being boosted by private sector initiatives.

Lebanon, a tiny nation of six million people including around one million Syrian refugees, began its inoculation campaign in mid-February after finalizing a deal for some two million doses with Pfizer.

According to Lebanese Health Ministry, the country has so far received 224,640 Pfizer-BioNTech doses over the past six weeks with nearly 100,000 doses already administered. Lebanon's government also began receiving AstraZeneca vaccines this week, with 33,600 doses that arrived on Wednesday.

The Pfizer vaccines are funded by the World Bank while AstraZeneca vaccines are provided under the UN-backed COVAX program.

Lebanon is currently in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, which has been exacerbated by the lockdown measures related to the pandemic. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs and the local currency has lost 90 percent of