No more COVID jabs in parliament, says Lebanon's deputy speaker after scandal

Lawmakers will get their COVID-19 vaccinations in hospital like everyone else from now on, the deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament said on Friday following a scandal over MPs receiving early jabs in the legislature.

About a dozen parliamentarians were vaccinated last month despite not being in a top priority group – sparking outrage in a country reeling from the impact of the pandemic and a financial meltdown.

Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli, who was among the vaccinated lawmakers, said they would not be getting their second doses in parliament.

“We will do it in accordance with the important directive concerning the hospitals,” Ferzli, who is in his early 70s, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The World Bank, which is partially funding Lebanon’s inoculation programme, initially threatened to suspend financing over the incident.

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Lebanon began its vaccination program on February 14 and has since given the first dose to about 100,000 of its more than six million people.

Despite official assurances that everyone is entitled to vaccination, rights groups fear many migrant workers and some of more than a million Syrian and Palestinian refugees in the country may be left out.

Report by Thomson Reuters Foundation.