The Ministry of Public Health’s media office indicated, in an issued statement on Sunday, that “ever since the announcement of the trial of several vaccines in the world, the Ministry has contacted the relevant authorities, such as the Russian embassy, the Chinese embassy and international pharmaceutical companies, which have a presence in Lebanon, requesting information related to the vaccines in order to be evaluated and possibly approved for emergency use.”
“Based on the data available to the Ministry of Public Health, most importantly the effectiveness and approval of the vaccine by international references, which is the basis for registering and approving any drug in Lebanon, the Pfizer vaccine was selected since it fulfilled these controls,” the statement added, indicating that “the vaccine obtained an ‘Emergency Use Authorization’ and was also approved by the Ministry’s scientific committee.”
“Accordingly, Lebanon will receive the vaccine in mid-February, in batches, so that 15% of the citizens will be covered,” the Health Ministry affirmed, noting that the Pfizer vaccine is currently used in the United States, Britain and some other European countries, and front line health workers are vaccinated as a first step.
The Lebanese Health Ministry also indicated that it concurrently negotiated with the Kovacs global platform to obtain additional vaccines that will be approved later by the World Health Organization to cover an additional 20% of citizens, respectively, according to the plan of the national committee supervising the Corona vaccines.
“Among the strategies adopted by the Ministry of Public Health is to accelerate the registration of any vaccine that meets the approved standards without discretion, to render it available via the private sector as per the Lebanese laws in force in terms of registration and marketing,” the statement concluded.
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