Lebanese caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan said on Friday that the country has managed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, vowing that the crisis of medicine shortage will come to an end soon.
Hasan’s remarks were at a celebration held by Hezbollah in the southern city of Nabatiyeh in honor of medical teams who confronted the pandemic.
“We will not allow this issue to tamper with our joy conquering the Coronavirus pandemic,” Hasan said, as quoted by National News Agency promising an end to the medicine crisis by the end of this week.
Coronavirus cases in Lebanon have been declining in the latest weeks, with positivity rate between 1 and 2%. Number of fatalities also declined, recording between 6 and 10 deaths per day.
“During my meeting with a World Bank delegation, which included directors from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as some senior officials, they felicitated Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health for having done well confronting the Coronavirus pandemic and building herd immunity against it,” Hasan said.
He added that Lebanon was “the first country with which the World Bank cooperated and signed a plan in support of immunization, because since the beginning of the crisis, we have raised with the WB this issue and expressed the government hospitals’ readiness in light of the reluctance of others. At this stage, we are on the path towards fully controlling the pandemic.”
As for the medicine shortage crisis, the minister said that the Ministry of Public Health was one of the administrative circles to facilitate the delivery of medicine from manufacturers, through importers, to Lebanese citizens.
“It is not permissible to say that the Ministry of Health has nothing to do with us when medicine importers are making huge profits, yet to blame it when they are incurring losses!” Hasan exclaimed, asking of medicine importers and manufacturers to reassess their calculations.
Addressing the Central Bank, Hasan affirmed that his ministry was adamant to take all necessary steps to determine priorities despite the stifling financial crisis.
“Our commitment is to continuing support to the Lebanese society,” he concluded.
Source: Agencies
