BEIRUT, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon is expected to receive the first batch of vaccines against COVID-19 by mid-February. However, local health experts expressed concerns about the country's ability to properly organize the vaccination campaign.

"Logistics is a main challenge, knowing that the Pfizer vaccine which Lebanon will receive by mid February is thermosensitive," Firas Abiad, director-general of Rafic Hariri University Hospital, told Xinhua.

Abiad said that Lebanon needs to prepare centers all over the country to manage the vaccines and train medical staff to be capable of vaccinating the public in the shortest period of time.

"Unfortunately, some hospitals do not have the needed capacity," he said.

Abiad noted that the biggest challenge facing Lebanon is the ability to receive appropriate amount of vaccines to cover the population given the financial difficulties in the country.

It was announced earlier this month that Lebanon will receive 2.1 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech by mid-February and the country is expecting another 2.5 million doses from COVAX, an international initiative for COVID-19 vaccines led by the World Health Organization.

Head of the Health Parliamentary Committee Assem Araji explained that Lebanon is also negotiating with Britain to receive 1.5 million to 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.

"This will allow us to vaccinate 3 million people which is equivalent to 50 percent of the population," Araji said, adding that Lebanon needs to vaccinate 80 percent of its population to achieve a safe environment in the country.

He noted that there are currently negotiations to buy other vaccines, such as the Chinese vaccine, to ensure the sufficient number.

Lebanon approved, earlier this month, a law that allows private companies to import COVID-19 vaccines from around the world under the supervision of the Health Ministry which must facilitate the country's access to a bigger number of vaccines.

"We will start with people working in the health sector, followed by the elderly aged above 75," Araji told Xinhua.

He explained that once 10,000 people were vaccinated with no side effects, others would then be reassured to also receive it.

However, Abiad emphasized the importance to start an awareness campaign to educate people about the importance of vaccination.

"This is also a very big challenge as I can see that even some medical staff working with us at the hospital still have concerns about the safety of the vaccines," he said.

For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani said he is mainly concerned about a fair distribution of vaccines all over the country in a way that would cover refugees as well.

"There should be cooperation between the concerned UN agencies to finance and manage the vaccination campaign for refugees since the Lebanese government cannot bear alone such a burden," he said.

Lebanon has been fighting against COVID-19 since Feb. 21 of last year. Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections has reached 276,587 so far while death toll from the virus stood at 2,270. Enditem

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