Five English Reports & editorials addressing the Social-medical-food supplies-Welfare hardships in Iranian Occupied Lebanon while encountering the COVID-19 spread/تقارير خمس وأراء تلقي الضؤ على وضعية لبنان بمواجهة انتشار الكورونا
Millions in Lebanon may starve during lockdown if government does provide aid: HRW/The New Arab & agencies/April 08/2020
Lebanon import woes deepen as supply chains buckle under coronavirus/Reuters/April 08/2020
Measures reinforced to prevent COVID-19 spread in Lebanon’s refugee camps Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly/April 08/2020
Coronavirus could infect over 650,000 in Lebanon if lockdowns not adhered to: Report Mona Alami, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 08 April 2020
Lebanon launches coronavirus aid measures with cash payments Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/April 08/2020
*********** Millions in Lebanon may starve during lockdown if government does provide aid: HRW The New Arab & agencies/April 08/2020
Millions of Lebanon’s citizens may starve if the government fails to provide food assistance to families, Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday.
Lebanon in mid-March ordered residents to stay at home and suspended all non-essential until further notice, to halt the spread of covid-19, which has officially infected 575 people and killed 19 nationwide.
Before the pandemic erupted, Lebanon was struggling with its worst economic crisis in decades, with 45 percent of the population facing poverty according to official estimates.
The rights group said the lockdown measures had made matters worse. In a statement, HRW warned “millions of Lebanon’s residents… at risk of going hungry.”
“The lockdown… has compounded the poverty and economic hardship rampant in Lebanon before the virus arrived,” said HRW senior researcher Lena Simet.
“Many people who had an income have lost it, and if the government does not step in, more than half the population may not be able to afford food and basic necessities.”
Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister Richard Kouyoumjian later on Wednesday held a press conference announcing an aid program for vulnerable families amid the economic crisis coupled with the virus lockdown.
Those in need of assistance can call their regional authorities – municipalities and mukhtars – to register. The data collected will then be sent to Lebanon’s Army, who will be distributing the aid, Kouyoumjian explained.
Koyoumjian did not say the exact amount of aid allocated within this assistance program.
Lebanon is home to 4.5 million people, and also hosts around 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the nine-year war next door, most of whom rely on aid to survive.
The economic crisis saw the closing of hundreds of local restaurants, as well as other businesses, and left over a 100,000 unemployed, according to reports.
Nearing the end of last year, months before the threat of the covid-19 pandemic was declared, the World Bank estimated that the percentage of Lebanon’s population below the poverty line would rise from 30 to 50 percent.
The coronavirus lockdown further forced businesses to let go of employees, or put them on indefinite unpaid leave.
HRW Lebanon researcher Aya Majzoub said many families are struggling due to a lack of savings.
The government had previously said it will pay out 400,000 Lebanese pounds (less than $150 at the market rate) to the most vulnerable, that were already in the registries.
HRW said the government should also consider suspending rent and mortgage payments throughout the lockdown.
Majzoub said Syrian refugees were also affected.
“Many of them were seasonal workers — they worked in agriculture, they worked in the service industry — and they’re not able to do that anymore,” she said.
But their ability to cope will depend largely on international aid, as before the pandemic.
The World Bank last week said it had re-allocated $40 million from its support to Lebanon’s health sector to fight the virus, including for tests and ventilators.
And it has also been discussing “assistance to help mitigate the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the poor through emergency social safety nets”, World Bank spokeswoman Zeina El-Khalil told AFP in March.
Lebanon import woes deepen as supply chains buckle under coronavirus Reuters/April 08/2020
BEIRUT–With the COVID-19 infections rising globally, slowing global food supply chains, so are fears of food insecurity in Lebanon which relies heavily on food imports.
Already hit by a financial crisis that has wiped out about half the value of the Lebanese pound and sent prices skyrocketing for months, food importers are struggling to book new cargoes. Vendors are reportedly delaying shipments and refusing new orders to Lebanon due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Supply disruptions, twinned with the hard currency squeeze, risk fuelling more inflation as poverty levels rise. Prices of consumer goods have nearly doubled in the past six months.
Food importers like Hani Bohsali said pressure was piling on stocks, already reduced by banking controls that force buyers to get scarce dollars on an informal market.
Last week, Bohsali was told Moroccan sardines were no longer available after fishermen stopped going out — and even if they did, tins from Spain were running low. Before that, a cooking oil shipment from Ukraine and lentils from Australia were each postponed bya month because of labour shortages.
“Everything is slowing down and I fear that, globally, the worst is yet to come,” he said.
As major state buyers from Saudi Arabia to Egypt look to beef up their strategic stocks, for the first time in years Lebanon’s government is thinking of importing wheat itself, a job usually left to private mills.
Economy Minister Raoul Nehme told Reuters the cabinet had authorised importing 80,000 tonnes though this was not “in the works today.”
“It is just a measure to be ready at any point in case we need it, for food security…to have an additional security stock.”
The government has warned that foreign currency reserves plummeted to “dangerous” levels, pledging to keep them for key goods: wheat, fuel and medicine.
Buyers of staples such as grains worry that other countries will hold back shipments as the pandemic drags on or choose not to prioritise the small nation of around six million, including some 2 million Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
“The interruptions because of the lack of cash dollars, the lockdowns abroad, we’re going to see the impact in two months,” said Nabil Fahed, an importer who heads the supermarket syndicate. “The supplies will not be there…I’m really worried about this.”
With a tiny industrial sector and scant natural resources, Lebanon’s economy produces few goods.
Fahed, who owns a major supermarket chain, said prices for most goods have risen 45-50%, with some already running out.
Harsher shortages could still be a few months off. Importers put stocks of most goods at 1-2 months and supermarkets remain largely full despite some panic shopping during Lebanon’s shutdown.
“I work on wheat, flour, rice and sugar, and nobody is selling anything,” said Paul Mansour, owner of Crown Mills. “Whatever is already booked, there’s a delay. For any new business, there’s nothing in the market.”
“This will drag on and get very bad,” he said. “If goods are delayed beyond a month, there’s going to be a serious issue of stocks.”
Lebanon launches coronavirus aid measures with cash payments Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/April 08/2020
Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon’s Social Affairs Ministry announced on Wednesday it is launching an aid programme for those most in need as the country’s worst economic crisis in a generation is exacerbated by a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.
In its first phase, the 75 billion Lebanese pound programme aims to provide one-time cash assistance of 400,000 Lebanese pounds ($140 at current parallel market exchange rates) to about 187,500 families, according to Jad Haidar, an adviser to Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Moucharafieh.
The aid will be distributed to roughly 150,000 families already registered with the country’s National Poverty Targeting Program, as well as 37,500 families that include front line healthcare workers and taxi and bus drivers who have been forced off the job by the lockdown, Haidar said.
The programme is launching as Human Rights Watch (HRW) warns that millions of Lebanon’s residents could go hungry unless the government establishes a well-coordinated and robust assistance plan.
“If the government does not step in, more than half the population may not be able to afford food and basic necessities,” Lena Simet, senior researcher on poverty and inequality at HRW said in a statement.
Assuming an average family consists of five people, Haidar said the programme would benefit roughly a million people in the country, adding that a number of independent initiatives are helping families across the country. But he acknowledged that more government aid would be needed.
Moucharafieh also cautioned that not all those who apply for aid would receive it.
“In all honesty the state does not have [financial] capacity to get aid to all the people who apply, so it will be in several phases,” he said in a televised news conference on Wednesday.
According to recent figures from Lebanon’s Ministry of Finance, about 45 percent of Lebanese now live below the poverty line, with 22 percent of the population living in extreme poverty.
Inflation is expected to soar from 2.9 percent in 2019 to above 27 percent this year, as the coronavirus crisis heaps even more pain on the country’s already ravaged economy.
A decades-long economic slump coupled with a significant debt burden and unsustainable financial policies has led to a dollar shortage in Lebanon. The currency, pegged to the US dollar since 1997 at 1,500 to $1, has devalued by nearly 50 percent on the parallel market since last summer.
It now hovers near 2,900 Lebanese pounds to $1.
Thousands of workers had already lost their jobs or had hours cut and wages slashed when the government announced a national coronavirus lockdown on March 15. Restaurants, bars and non-essential shops have been ordered closed.
The measures were further tightened on March 26 when an overnight curfew was announced.
Sporadic protests have broken out in parts of the country as people break the mandatory curfew to ask for assistance. “We want to eat, we want to live,” protesters chanted in Beirut’s southern suburbs late last month.
But many have praised the government’s swift action to control the spread of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, the country had 19 coronavirus-related deaths and 575 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Distribution dilemma
A number of analysts have raised concerns about how even the meagre government aid that has been pledged will be distributed, given that Lebanon regularly ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world.
Lebanon’s sectarian elite have long dolled-out state funds to their respective supporting communities across the country in order to create networks of loyalty and dependence.
Social Affairs Minister Moucharafieh said cash aid would be distributed with the help of Lebanon’s army, the country’s most respected institution that is seen to be somewhat isolated from sectarian power-struggles that have paralyzed many of the country’s institutions.
He said citizens would be asked to call local authorities, such as their municipality, who in turn will fill in an online form with about two-dozen questions to assess the family’s needs. The form is then transferred to the interior ministry and on to the army.
The military will then distribute aid directly to those in need, rather than passing it through local authorities, Moucharafieh said, adding that anyone who experiences issues during the process should call a complaints hotline. He urged those filling the forms to work transparently or face prosecution.
Lebanon was rocked by massive anti-establishment protests starting last October that challenged the country’s elites and called for accountability over deeply entrenched corruption. But analysts have warned the current crisis presents an opportunity for political parties to strengthen allegiance and reward loyalty.
Many have mobilised health workers and funds and have distributed food aid. Some have even handed out party-branded protective equipment to supporters and have disinfected streets while playing partisan songs.
“We are looking at a state that is made up of this assemblage of political parties, local parties and actors. [These] political parties step in and seek to fill the state’s governance voids,” Tamarice Fakhoury, an associate professor of political science at the Lebanese American University, told Al Jazeera.
“I would warn of the dangers of such an approach because if the state doesn’t establish … who is vulnerable and provide safety nets to people, we’re going to see riots and protests. People will be unable to resort to confinement,” she said.
Coronavirus could infect over 650,000 in Lebanon if lockdowns not adhered to: Report Mona Alami, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 08 April 2020
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people will be infected with coronavirus and thousands will become critically ill if lockdown and social distancing measures are not respected, according to a report by an international non-government organization.
An internal report by the humanitarian medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontières) projected that in a best-case scenario, 658,074 people in Lebanon could become infected. The country has a population of around 6 million, including roughly a million Syrian refugees and around 175,000 Palestinian refugees. The report was provided to Al-Arabiya English by a source in the medical aid community.
The best-case scenario forecasts that 454,096 Lebanese citizens will be infected by coronavirus with another 159,519 Syrians and 24,460 Palestinians. Syrians and Palestinians live makeshift camps, in unhygienic conditions that could facilitate the spread of the contagion.
In a best-case scenario, over 100,000 people will experience mild cases, while more than 17,000 people will require hospitalization, and nearly 6,000 people are expected to be in critical condition and will require intensive care.
The worst-case scenario predicts that 710,606 people will be infected in Lebanon. In this scenario, nearly 87,000 cases will be mild, over 41,000 people will require hospitalization, and another 14,000 will be in critical condition, and will thus need to be treated in intensive care units. In the worst case scenario, 10 percent of people will be in critical condition.
The report also underlines that as the virus reaches its peak, there could be a need for more than 9,000 hospital beds in a worst-case scenario and nearly 4,000 in a best-case scenario. Lebanon has between 350-500 ICU beds countrywide, according Global Health Institute figures. A 2013 study by Blominvest puts the number of total hospital beds at around 15,000.
Amaury Gregoire, the organization’s head of mission in Lebanon, spoke to Al Arabiya to confirm the report’s figures and said the worst-case scenario figures are based on statistics from Italy, where the virus has been especially deadly and ICU occupancy was around 10 percent.
“Today, Lebanon is showing numbers less than that, around 2.2 percent or 2.3 percent,” he said.
The Lebanese government has imposed strict containment measures, which have helped in flattening the contagion’s curve. However, these measures have been difficult to implement in impoverished areas in the cities of Beirut, Saida, Nabatieh, and Tripoli.
There is fear that more relaxed measures would lead to infection flare-ups; this is exacerbated by the ongoing repatriation of thousands Lebanese stranded abroad.
“Regarding the Lebanese diaspora flown into Lebanon, the Lebanese government has taken all the necessary measures at entry points for the Lebanese returnees. If these measures are followed and respected, this should not affect the situation, nor should we worry about any increase in cases, “says Gregoire.
Yet as the population grows restless with extensive confinement measures, set against the backdrop of the country’s economic collapse, maintaining these measures could become challenging for the Lebanese government, which could end up pushing Lebanon’s pandemic to new peaks.
Millions in Lebanon may starve during lockdown if government does provide aid: HRW The New Arab & agencies/April 08/2020
Millions of Lebanon’s citizens may starve if the government fails to provide food assistance to families, Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday.
Lebanon in mid-March ordered residents to stay at home and suspended all non-essential until further notice, to halt the spread of covid-19, which has officially infected 575 people and killed 19 nationwide.
Before the pandemic erupted, Lebanon was struggling with its worst economic crisis in decades, with 45 percent of the population facing poverty according to official estimates.
The rights group said the lockdown measures had made matters worse. In a statement, HRW warned “millions of Lebanon’s residents… at risk of going hungry.”
“The lockdown… has compounded the poverty and economic hardship rampant in Lebanon before the virus arrived,” said HRW senior researcher Lena Simet.
“Many people who had an income have lost it, and if the government does not step in, more than half the population may not be able to afford food and basic necessities.”
Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister Richard Kouyoumjian later on Wednesday held a press conference announcing an aid program for vulnerable families amid the economic crisis coupled with the virus lockdown.
Those in need of assistance can call their regional authorities – municipalities and mukhtars – to register. The data collected will then be sent to Lebanon’s Army, who will be distributing the aid, Kouyoumjian explained.
Koyoumjian did not say the exact amount of aid allocated within this assistance program.
Lebanon is home to 4.5 million people, and also hosts around 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the nine-year war next door, most of whom rely on aid to survive. The economic crisis saw the closing of hundreds of local restaurants, as well as other businesses, and left over a 100,000 unemployed, according to reports.
Nearing the end of last year, months before the threat of the covid-19 pandemic was declared, the World Bank estimated that the percentage of Lebanon’s population below the poverty line would rise from 30 to 50 percent.
The coronavirus lockdown further forced businesses to let go of employees, or put them on indefinite unpaid leave.
HRW Lebanon researcher Aya Majzoub said many families are struggling due to a lack of savings.
The government had previously said it will pay out 400,000 Lebanese pounds (less than $150 at the market rate) to the most vulnerable, that were already in the registries.
HRW said the government should also consider suspending rent and mortgage payments throughout the lockdown.
Majzoub said Syrian refugees were also affected.
“Many of them were seasonal workers — they worked in agriculture, they worked in the service industry — and they’re not able to do that anymore,” she said.
But their ability to cope will depend largely on international aid, as before the pandemic.
The World Bank last week said it had re-allocated $40 million from its support to Lebanon’s health sector to fight the virus, including for tests and ventilators.
And it has also been discussing “assistance to help mitigate the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the poor through emergency social safety nets”, World Bank spokeswoman Zeina El-Khalil told AFP in March.
Measures reinforced to prevent COVID-19 spread in Lebanon’s refugee camps Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly/April 08/2020
So far, just one Palestinian and three Syrians, all of whom live outside camps, have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 548 infections and 19 deaths across Lebanon.
BEIRUT–UN agencies and humanitarian aid groups have stepped up precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus inside Lebanon’s Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps, which often lack access to adequate water and sanitation.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in overcrowded and rundown camps in Lebanon, which is also home to at least 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the war next door.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has been ramping up efforts to raise awareness about basic hygiene among the Syrian refugee communities.
“Since early February we’ve been leading mass information and awareness raising campaigns and have launched a series of precautionary hygiene activities in all locations where refugees live in overcrowded conditions,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled. “We are also distributing additional hygiene materials like soap and other cleaning products for refugees.”
Abou Khaled said no confirmed COVID-19 cases have been registered among the Syrian refugees, most of whom live in informal tented encampments.
However, she said the agency has set up “isolation centres” inside the camps in the event quarantines are needed.
“Since self-isolation is so important and it may be difficult for people who live in crowded tents, we are setting up places for them to be able to self-isolate, either through erecting new tents for them near the camps or equipping existing structures which are currently empty,” Abou Khaled said.
“We are also working with the ministry of public health to support hospitals. We will create additional wards with additional beds, including additional intensive care units so there is sufficient response capacity for all communities, Lebanese and refugees,” she added.
So far, just one Palestinian and three Syrians, all of whom live outside the camps, have tested positive for COVID-19, out of 548 infections and 19 deaths across Lebanon.
UNHCR is also working to raise awareness among Syrian refugees about the virus’s symptoms and how they can contact the ministry of public health hotline for screening. UNHCR has committed to paying for any testing and treatment services for the virus.
Similar measures are being applied by the UN Relief and Works Agency that cares for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in 12 overcrowded camps across Lebanon.
The agency has converted its vocational and technical training centre in south Lebanon into a medical facility to treat potential coronavirus patients.
“The purpose is to provide a centre where mild cases of coronavirus would be treated in case hospitals have no capacity and where isolation at home is not possible,” said UNRWA spokesperson Huda Samra. “We have also identified other UNRWA installations at camps’ level that can be turned into medical isolation centres.”
UNRWA, which provides educational and medical services for Palestinian refugees, has taken a number of protective measures in its clinics inside the camps.
“Daily disinfection is taking place in all our clinics and medical staff have been equipped with the needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and received the training needed on prevention and handling of cases,” Samra said.
“We have also adjusted our health centres’ mode of operation by introducing appointments for everyone to reduce the inflow of people and postponed all non-emergency consultations.”
“The main concern remains… the spread of the coronavirus in the overcrowded Palestinian refugee camps where there are very limited possibilities for home isolation,” Samra added.
Other humanitarian actors have taken measures to help stem the virus.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had increased water deliveries and supplied soap and bleach to Palestinians and Syrians. Cars mounted with loudspeakers have been making the rounds at Palestinian camps, broadcasting messages about the importance of hand washing and not touching one’s face.
Fears that the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate discrimination against refugees in Lebanon were voiced by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which cited restrictions on movement imposed on refugees in several municipalities.
“At least 21 Lebanese municipalities have introduced discriminatory restrictions on Syrian refugees that do not apply to Lebanese residents as part of their efforts to combat COVID-19,” HRW stated.
“There is no evidence that extra curfews for Syrian refugees will help limit the spread of COVID-19,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee rights researcher at HRW. “The coronavirus does not discriminate and limiting the spread and impact of COVID-19 in Lebanon requires ensuring that everyone is able to access testing and treatment centres.”
Palestinians, like many Syrian refugees, often live off of daily wages. Now under a nationwide lockdown that has battered the economy and halted their access to job, refugees are in desperate need of additional aid.
As part of an emergency relief plan, the agency “will be distributing some limited cash assistance in the coming weeks,” Samra said.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has appealed for financial assistance from international donors, saying the international community has a responsibility to help Lebanon shoulder the burden of hosting scores of Palestinian and Syrian refugees and warning of a “health catastrophe if the virus hits refugee camps.”
