As of 30th of March 2020, there are 438 confirmed cases in Lebanon, 259 cases in Jordan and 547 cases in Iraq. These countries, even though less impacted than Europe at the moment, must face vulnerabilities in their health system to limit the spread of the virus.
SAFE, through the EU CBRN CoE Project 73 “CBRN PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN IRAQ, JORDAN AND LEBANON”, is actively engaged in supporting the Lebanese national response to this emergency.
The Project’s resources will be immediately oriented to provide bio-decontamination tools to test and decontaminate the control room in which the Lebanese National COVID-19 task force meets daily. This action guarantees the biosecurity of the chain of command at the Grand Sérail, and therefore the continuity and efficiency of the response to safeguard the Lebanese population. An additional set of activities to support e-learning on special decontamination processes, to the benefit of Lebanese hospitals will be organized.
SAFE Senior Associate Emmanuel Bouquot – Key expert for the P73, is partaking in the Lebanese COVID-19 Task Force managed by the Prime Minister Office. Through his expertise, Mr Bouquot holds a strategic advisory role to the Lebanese authorities to face the COVID-19 emergency, supporting the coordination of training activities and identification of urgent material while actively exchanging inputs with practitioners in the field.
In these difficult times, SAFE team is on the front line to support Lebanese authorities and first responders to handle COVID19 in the best possible manner. While we continue to work, do your best to support these efforts, and #stayhome.