Lebanon starts Covid-19 vaccination campaign

Lebanon starts Covid-19 vaccination campaign

/ Middle East

















Issued on: 14/02/2021 - 05:12



















A truck carrying the first batch of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) arrives at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon February 13, 2021. © REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir











Lebanon received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday with aid from the World Bank, which said it would monitor the inoculation drive to ensure the shots go to those most in need.











About 28,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine landed at Beirut airport, the first of 2.1 million doses set to arrive in stages throughout the year.

Doctors hope this will ease the pressure on hospitals, battered over the past year by a financial crisis and a port explosion and now fighting some of the region's highest infection rates.

In its first operation funding the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, the World Bank reallocated $34 million from an existing health project in Lebanon to help launch the vaccination programme.

"We will MONITOR fair and transparent distribution to PRIORITY groups," Ferid Belhaj, its