The US has delivered Lebanon a donation of 336,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine against the coronavirus through the COVAX program, the US embassy announced on Sunday.
The donation aims to support the continued fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. As a single dose vaccine, this J&J donation can fully inoculate 336,000 Lebanese against the disease.
“The J&J donation is the first of two donations from the United States; a second donation of 277,340 doses of the Moderna vaccine will arrive later this week, bringing the total US contribution to 613,340 vaccine doses,” said the embassy in a statement.
The vaccines will support the government’s vaccination strategy against the coronavirus, saving lives, and ensuring Lebanon’s path to economic recovery and long-term stability in its health system, it said.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Lebanon, the US government has allocated over $55 million to COVID-related assistance to mitigate the spread of this virus, focusing in particular on vulnerable Lebanese, said the statement.
“This COVID-related assistance is part of more than $372 million in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in Fiscal Year 2021, bringing total US humanitarian assistance to Lebanon $2.9 billion since 2012,” it added.
