BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanese authorities began enforcing an 11-day nationwide shutdown and a 24-hour curfew Thursday, hoping to limit the spread of out of control coronavirus infections after the holiday season.
For the first time, residents had to apply for a one-hour permit to leave the house for ’emergencies’, such as going to the bakery, pharmacist, doctor, hospital or airport.
Authorities came under pressure to take a tougher approach after the country’s hospitals ran out of beds with daily infections that reached a record high of 5,440 cases last week in the country of nearly 6 million people.
The dramatic rise in infections started at the end of December. While most governments around the world tightened the lockdown, Lebanon relaxed health measures during the holidays, allowing restaurants and nightclubs to reopen with hardly any restrictions. An estimated 80,000 expats flocked back into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year with loved ones, many of them expats who skipped the visit in the summer due to the devastating August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut.
“The holiday period should have been the time for lockdown. The season of hustle and bustle, shopping and partying, ”says Hanna Azar, owner of a money transfer and telephone shop. “They opened it to let dollars into the country and now they want to close, especially in this economic crisis. People don’t have the money to eat. “
Even before the coronavirus, Lebanon went through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, with its national currency and banking sector collapsing and savers no longer having access to savings. Hospitals, long considered some of the best in the Middle East, struggled to pay staff, keep equipment running, and secure necessary medical supplies as dollars became scarce.
In the midst of the wave, many hospitals have now reached maximum capacity for coronavirus patients. Some have stopped elective surgery because they run out of beds, oxygen tanks, and fans.
In addition, the country has not had a government since the old resigned in the wake of the August 4 catastrophic explosion in the port of Beirut, which put further pressure on hospitals and inundated them with injuries. At least three hospitals were destroyed.
The massive explosion caused by the detonation of a supply of poorly stored ammonium nitrate devastated the city, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands.
On Thursday, police manned checkpoints across the country, checked drivers’ permits to be on the road, and in some cases caused traffic jams. The curfew is the strictest since the start of the pandemic. For the first time, even supermarkets were told to close their doors and open only for delivery. That decision triggered three days of chaotic panic buying as concerned citizens cleared supermarket and grocery store shelves.
Lebanon had only just announced a nationwide lockdown last week. But many, including the health minister and officials on a government committee, found it too lenient as it made an exception for many sectors. In some parts of the country, it continued as usual, leading to more calls for full closures and curfews.