Idlib, Damascus Launch COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

A man receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in Idlib, northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A man receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in Idlib, northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

Idlib, Damascus Launch COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

A man receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in Idlib, northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A man receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in Idlib, northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Syria’s Health Ministry launched on Tuesday a national COVID-19 vaccination drive targeting frontline healthcare workers.

Health Minister Hasan al-Ghabbash said the vaccine administration is carried out in accordance with the priorities set to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

He said healthcare workers, the elderly and citizens suffering from chronic diseases will be inoculated first.

He said the Ministry’s cadres have already received the first dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, noting that others will receive the shot of their choice.

According to Ghabbash, the first phase of the national inoculation drive will include people at high risk of contracting the virus.

The health ministry detected a recent decline in infections in Damascus and other government-run areas compared to March and April.

It recorded 60 new coronavirus cases, 287 recoveries and seven deaths in regime-held areas, raising the infection tally to 23,439, including 19,024 recoveries and 1,664 deaths.

The global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX is scheduled to send 1,020,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Geneva-based GAVI vaccine alliance to Syria.

According to member of Syria’s coronavirus advisory committee Dr. Nabough al-Awa, batches of the Russian, Chinese and Indian COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in government-run areas.

He said 200,000 AstraZeneca shots will be given to people under 50 to avoid rare cases of blood clots associated with the vaccine.

Awa pointed out that 150,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine have arrived, adding that Russia has also provided a batch of its Sputnik V vaccine.

Doctors and people under 50 will receive Russian and Chinese jabs to avoid any implications, Awa said, pointing out that no serious side-effect has been detected among the inoculated.

In the northwestern city of Idlib, the Syria Vaccination Team and the armed opposition-affiliated Idlib Health Directorate are striving to inoculate healthcare workers and journalists who have contracts with humanitarian organizations.

Member of the Team’s central chamber Dr. Marwan Kaddour said the first phase targets healthcare and humanitarian workers.

While the second phase targets the elderly, people with chronic diseases and public servants, he added, noting the they will receive the shots once the second COVID-19 vaccine batch arrives.

Healthcare workers in opposition-run areas recorded 28 new infection cases in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside, taking the infection tally to 22,197, including 655 deaths and 20,236 recoveries.



Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
TT

Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
The outcome reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year's war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.
Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in a first round vote, but crossed the threshold with 99 votes in a second round, according to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement backed him.
Momentum built behind Aoun on Wednesday as Hezbollah's long preferred candidate, Suleiman Franjieh, withdrew and declared support for the army commander, and as French envoy shuttled around Beirut, urging his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said.
Aoun's election is a first step towards reviving government institutions in a country which has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Aoun left office.
Lebanon, its economy still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international support to rebuild from the war, which the World Bank estimates cost the country $8.5 billion.
Lebanon's system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new cabinet, a process that can often be protracted as factions barter over ministerial portfolios.
Aoun has a key role in shoring up a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which was brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Aoun, 60, has been commander of the Lebanese army since 2017.