After the arrival of the first doses of vaccines last week, the Russian Sputnik vaccine began to roll out in Lebanon, with the vaccination of 300 Middle East Airlines (MEA) employees in present outgoing health ministers Hamad Hassan , transport Michel Najar and MEA President Mohammed Hout.
In total, the 5,000 employees of the national company should thus benefit from this vaccination program.
More than 50,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine have reached Lebanon. This order was made by the private sector after the Ministry of Health granted a marketing licence.
So far, 224,640 doses of Pfizer vaccine funded by the World Bank since February, and 33,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine with funding from the United Nations COVAX program have arrived in Lebanon this week.
The arrival of the Russian vaccine in Lebanon is the result of a private initiative, that of Jacques Sarraf, president of the Lebanese-Russian chamber of commerce. It will involve vaccinating employees of private companies, banks and factories, in order to reactivate the Lebanese economy, which is also severely handicapped by an economic crisis.
He said he hoped for 100,000 to 200,000 doses to arrive in Lebanon every 3 weeks and a million doses in total.
