Hospitals in Beirut are almost saturated in the face of the influx of patients with the new coronavirus and Lebanon is " on the brink " after the devastating explosion in the Lebanese capital, resigned Minister of Health Hamad Hassan assured Monday.
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In recent weeks, Lebanon has seen an increase in infections with the new coronavirus. The country recorded a record of contamination on Sunday with 439 new patients, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases to 8,881 since the start of the epidemic in Lebanon at the end of February, including 103 deaths.
" The public and private hospitals of the capital find themselves with a very limited reception capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators ", warned Minister Hamad Hassan at a press conference. " We are on the brink, we do not have the luxury to take our time, " he warned, pleading for a new two-week lockdown to curb the spread of the epidemic.
" In the capital, the intensive care units and hospital departments set up to fight the epidemic in public hospitals are full, " Mr. Hassan had indicated earlier at the microphone of the radio station La Voix du Liban. " In most private hospitals that receive patients with the coronavirus, intensive care beds are full, " he also stressed.
Provisional reconfinement canceled
He explained that four hospitals in the capital that were receiving cases of Covid-19 are " out of order " after the deadly explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4 that devastated entire neighborhoods of the capital.
The chaotic situation after the explosion makes it difficult to establish containment or comply with precautionary measures, warned Mr. Hassan. " Our ability to control behavior in the face of the virus is more limited, " he acknowledged, citing in particular " the movement of families to hospitals to look for the wounded or missing " and the mobilization in the street, where dozens volunteers cleared the rubble daily.
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The government had decreed a provisional containment, canceled after the devastating explosion that left more than 177 dead and 6,500 injured. The explosion was caused by a fire in a warehouse where, according to the authorities, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years.
The pandemic was first brought under control by the Lebanese authorities, who imposed a widely followed containment in mid-March. But the cases started to rise again at the beginning of the summer with the gradual lifting of the measures.
