Lebanese health experts emphasized the need to adopt a series of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 amid a recent surge in cases in the country. Lebanon witnessed last week the highest daily increase in COVID-19 infections of over 3,500 cases, prompting the country to impose a 25-day lockdown from Jan. 7 to Feb. 1. Firas Abiad, director general of the Rafic Hariri University Hospital, told Xinhua that the authorities should adopt a strategy for the post lock-down period. "If the government does not adopt a clear strategy, people will not commit properly to lock-down because they do not know what will come next and whether the cabinet's steps will yield positive results," Abiad said. Head of the Health Parliamentary Committee Issam Araji said that the authorities need to impose fines on people who violate the lock-down to better enforce precautionary measures.
Amid an increase in the COVID-19 cases, the lack of sufficient beds at private hospitals posed a great challenge to the pandemic situation in the country. Araji suggest authorities take advantage of the lock-down period to add more beds to the Intensive Care Units at hospitals. He also emphasized the lack of a sufficient number of nurses. Among the steps that must be adopted by authorities, according to Abiad, is the promotion of the necessity to take the vaccine among the public once it arrives in Lebanon. "We should also prepare our infrastructure to allow the vaccine to reach the biggest number of people," Abiad said.