Lebanon‘s Ministry of Health has rejected a court order to vaccinate 80-year-old Joseph al-Hajj, who won a lawsuit against the ministry.
The elderly man took legal action against the ministry for allowing parliamentarians to jump the queue and receive the COVID-19 vaccine before him against the national vaccination plan.
In a controversial scandal, Lebanese MPs received the vaccine in violation of the national vaccination plan, which prioritizes those above 75. Many of the MPs who received the vaccine were younger than al-Hajj.
Because of this, the World Bank almost suspended its financing of the vaccines for Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Urgent Matters Judge Carla Chawah ruled in the al-Hajj’s favor ordering the health ministry to vaccinate him within 48-hours or else pay a 10,000,000 LBP fine for every day it delays to do so.
However, on Thursday, the health ministry issued a response in which it accused Judge Chawah’s decision of being purely for the media and said the man will get his vaccine “sooner or later,” refusing to follow the judge’s order, reported Reuters.
Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan has also been defending his decision to vaccinate the MPs saying that it was not a violation of the national vaccination plan, adding that the media was “exaggerating” the scandal.
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