With just 27 deaths, Lebanon gets high marks for virus response

Even as it scrambles to avoid economic collapse, Lebanon has recorded some of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the Middle East since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The health ministry has warned it is too early to cry victory, but a three-month lockdown is gradually being lifted.

The first confirmed case was reported on February 21 among a group who flew in from a pilgrimage in hard-hit Iran.

Projections on the spread of the pandemic in a country that only had 128 beds available for coronavirus patients were bleak, with forecasts putting the death toll in the hundreds.

By June 3, however, the country of six million had only recorded 1,256 cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths.

Lebanon’s deaths per million are among the lowest in the region — along with others including Jordan and Tunisia — and far below those of Iran, Turkey, Israel and several Gulf states.

“If we compare our infection rate per million inhabitants and our mortality rate, we are faring much better than countries around us,” Souha Kanj, head of the infectious diseases department at the American University of Beirut, tells AFP.

While some cases have gone unreported and the scale of testing remains limited, health experts agree that major outbreaks could not have gone unnoticed.

Most new infections were reported among Lebanese recently repatriated on special flights and the authorities have only recorded two deaths over the past month.

— AFP