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As Cases Rise, Lebanon Seeks to Enforce COVID-19 Preventive Measures

Municipal workers spray disinfectant in a street in Beirut to counter the spread of the new coronavirus (AFP)
Municipal workers spray disinfectant in a street in Beirut to counter the spread of the new coronavirus (AFP)
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As Cases Rise, Lebanon Seeks to Enforce COVID-19 Preventive Measures

Municipal workers spray disinfectant in a street in Beirut to counter the spread of the new coronavirus (AFP)
Municipal workers spray disinfectant in a street in Beirut to counter the spread of the new coronavirus (AFP)

Lebanon’s security forces have boosted their measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 amid an increase in the number of cases.

The Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday the registration of 995 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 62,944.

It also reported six death cases during the past 24 hours.

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi and the Coronavirus Follow-up Committee issued new preventive measures and procedures after a meeting held on Saturday.

The committee issued a new list of towns classified as dangerous and witnessing an increase in the number of cases.

It also reiterated the importance of wearing masks, warning that violators would be strictly fined.

All kinds of social events were banned in 79 towns and villages across the country while governmental and private institutions and schools in villages under lockdown were closed.

Last week, caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan stirred controversy after announcing that Lebanon would get the vaccine against COVID-19 through COVAX, an international initiative aimed at ensuring equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, before the end of this year.

"The first quantity of vaccine will be available for 20 percent of the Lebanese," he said, adding the rest of the needed quantities will arrive in Lebanon in batches.

The minister’s statements surprised several medical and political officials.

“This does not reflect the international status of the vaccine, which the Russians promised to release and which drives several questions concerning its efficacy and its side effects,” former MP Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh said.

He explained that the vaccine has still not been licensed by the FDA and the World Health Organization.

“There is no doubt that the minister cares about the general health of citizens, however, the issue is complicated and requires sensitive information and making the right choices,” Sukkariyeh added.

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Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Almost 30% of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Middle Eastern countries want to return home in the next year, following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, up from almost none last year, the head of the UN's refugee agency said.

The shift is based on an assessment done by the UN in January, weeks after Assad was ousted by opposition factions, bringing an abrupt end to a 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.

"We have seen the needle move, finally, after years of decline," Filippo Grandi told a small group of reporters in Damascus, after holding meetings with the Syria's new ruling administration.

The number of Syrians wishing to return "had reached almost zero. It's now nearly 30% in the space of a few weeks. There is a message there, which I think is very important, must be listened to and must be acted upon," he said.

Around 200,000 Syrian refugees have already returned since Assad fell, he said, in addition to around 300,000 who fled back to Syria from Lebanon during the Hezbollah-Israel war in September and October, most of whom are thought to have stayed.

Returning the roughly 6 million Syrians who fled abroad and the millions who became internally displaced has been a main aim of Syria's new administration.

But the civil war has left large parts of many major cities in ruins, services decrepit and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. Syria remains under a harsh Western sanctions regime that effectively cuts off its formal economy from the rest of the world.

To aid Syrians returning, many of whom often sell all their belongings to pay for the trip, UN agencies are providing some cash aid for transportation and will help with food and to reconstruct at least parts of broken homes, Grandi said.

More aid is needed from donors, Grandi said, and sanctions should be reconsidered. He did not comment directly on an announcement on Friday by the new US administration of a broad suspension of foreign aid programs.

"If sanctions are lifted, this will improve the conditions in the places where people return," he said.

The US earlier this month provided a six-month sanctions exemption for some sectors, including energy, but Syria's new leaders say much more relief is needed.

Grandi said refugees were responding to a political process that the new administration's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has committed to, aimed at producing a governing authority by March 1 that better represents Syria's diversity.

"Refugees are listening to what he's saying, to what his people are saying, and that's why I think many people decided to go back," Grandi said. "But many more will come if these things continue to be positive."