The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim launched an updated appeal for $482 million to alleviate the effects of the ongoing outbreak in Lebanon.
Claudio Cordone launched the Lebanon Emergency Appeal (LEA) in collaboration with UN and NGO partners in an attempt to continue to address “critical areas of humanitarian intervention” until the end of the year.
The requested funds will go to protect the lives of people in Lebanon who are threatened the most by the COVID-19 outbreak and its direct socio-economic repercussions.
It is also meant to improve and strengthen Lebanon’s health system by providing it with additional equipment, including testing kits, beds for intensive care units, ventilators, and personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves.
Furthermore, part of the financial support will be used for upgrading 10 laboratories of public hospitals.
That’s in addition to establishing and maintaining isolation units in order to increase the capacity of hospitals and effectively isolate positive cases.
LEA aims as well to conduct awareness campaigns about COVID-19 for all population groups in Lebanon, and support an estimated 89,000 vulnerable Lebanese households with food and cash assistance.
40 municipalities across Lebanon will also benefit from the appeal.
It will provide them with the needed support to establish small businesses for the production of face masks and other COVID-19-related materials. This will also indirectly help around 40,000 additional households.
“The humanitarian interventions for which the appeal seeks funding will address the needs of the most destitute to cope with the deepening crisis,” said Cordone.
Coincidentally on Friday, the day the updated appeal was launched, the American University of Beirut Medical Center laid off more than 800 of its employees, some of whom had been getting paid a monthly salary of no more than $100.
