Lebanon reports 2,591 new COVID-19 cases, highest count since April

Lebanon has reported 2,591 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the highest daily case count since April, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health also reported 6 new deaths, raising the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 7958.

Health authorities also confirmed that the total number of recoveries has reached 540,003 cases while the total number of infections reached 576,550.

The health ministry said 412 are in critical condition while 18,181 cases remain active in the country.

The small Mediterranean nation has full vaccinated 1,281,017 corresponding to 27 percent of targeted population.

Lebanon’s deepening economic crisis has piled pressure on hospitals, leaving them ill-equipped to face any new wave of the coronavirus, a top hospital director has warned.

Already struggling with shortages of medicine and an exodus of staff abroad, the country’s health facilities are now also having to contend with almost round-the-clock power cuts.

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“All hospitals... are now less prepared than they were during the wave at the start of the year,” said Firass Abiad, the manager of the largest public hospital in the country battling COVID-19.

“Medical and nursing staff have left, medicine that was once available has run out,” and ever lengthening cuts to the mains power supply have left hospitals under constant threat.

Even the Rafik Hariri University Hospital he runs has been struggling to cope.

“We only get two to three hours of mains electricity, and for the rest of the time it’s up to the generators,” Abiad said. On top of worrying they could burn out, “we have the huge burden of having to constantly be on the hunt for fuel oil.”

- With AFP

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