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Medics Warn of COVID-19 'Catastrophe' in Lebanon

Lebanese security forces wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as they stand guard at a street full of restaurants where revelers celebrating the New Year Eve, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese security forces wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as they stand guard at a street full of restaurants where revelers celebrating the New Year Eve, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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Medics Warn of COVID-19 'Catastrophe' in Lebanon

Lebanese security forces wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as they stand guard at a street full of restaurants where revelers celebrating the New Year Eve, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese security forces wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as they stand guard at a street full of restaurants where revelers celebrating the New Year Eve, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanon's hospitals are being overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, medics warned Saturday, as infection rates surge in the wake of end of year holidays.

The national Covid-19 task force was expected to advise a three-week lockdown, said Petra Khoury, its head.

Lebanon, with a population of around six million, has recorded 183,888 coronavirus cases, including 1,466 deaths, since February.

On Thursday, it hit a daily record of more than 3,500 new cases.

In what he termed a "catastrophic" situation, Sleiman Haroun, head of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, said "the 50 private hospitals in the country receiving patients with Covid-19 are now almost full".

They have a total of 850 beds, including 300 in intensive care units, Haroun said.

"Patients are now waiting in line... waiting for a bed to be free," he told AFP.

After imposing tight restrictions in November to combat the spread of the pandemic, the government relaxed rules.

Ahead of the December holidays, the government pushed back a nighttime curfew to 3:00 am and allowed nightclubs and bars to reopen.

This prompted criticism from health professionals who warned bed occupancy in intensive care units was running critically low.

"The problem is that once a patient is admitted to intensive care, they stay there for three weeks," said Khoury.

The "gatherings and private parties" of the December holiday season have fed a dramatic rise in cases, Khoury said.

"Over the past three weeks, the occupancy rate of intensive care units has increased by 10 percent," pushing the occupancy of hospital beds in Beirut to over 90 percent of capacity.

"We have been asked by several hospitals not to transfer patients to them," Lebanese Red Cross president Georges Kettaneh told AFP.

Instead, the Red Cross was taking patients to the Bekaa in the east or Nabatiyeh in the south.

Lebanon is expecting to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines in February from Pfizer-BioNTech.

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Red Cross Concerned by Drone Attacks on Critical Infrastructure in Sudan

People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Red Cross Concerned by Drone Attacks on Critical Infrastructure in Sudan

People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

The Red Cross raised alarm on Thursday at the growing use of drone attacks by warring parties on hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure in Sudan, which it said was contributing to widespread human rights violations.

Some 70-80% of hospitals in Sudan were not running and there were concerns cholera could surge due to damage caused by the war to water infrastructure, the International Committee of the Red Cross told reporters in Geneva.

"A recent drone attack stopped all the electricity provision in an area close to Khartoum, which means critical infrastructure is being damaged," said Patrick Youssef, the Red Cross's Regional Director for Africa, in a new report.

"There is a clear increased use of these technologies, drones - to be in the hands of everyone - which increases the impact on the local population and the intensity of attacks," Youssef said.

After two years of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, some people are returning to Khartoum after they were forced to flee when war broke out on April 15, 2023 amidst a ongoing power struggle between the army and the RSF ahead of a transition to civilian rule.

Some 12 million people have been displaced by the conflict since 2023.

"We have seen violations of the law left, right and center,” Youssef said, urging the warring parties to allow the Red Cross access so it can offer humanitarian support and document atrocities.

In March, aid groups told Reuters that the RSF had placed new constraints on aid deliveries to territories where it was seeking to cement its control. Aid groups have also accused the army of denying or hindering access to RSF-controlled areas.

Both sides in the conflict deny impeding aid.