BEIRUT: Lebanon on Saturday received its first vaccines against the coronavirus, a day before an inoculation drive kicks off in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country.

A plane landed at the Beirut airport, an AFP correspondent reported, with authorities saying it was carrying 28,500 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech flown in from Belgium.

The shipment was the first after the World Bank allocated $34 million to inoculate two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants.

Caretaker health minister Hamad Hassan was on the tarmac to welcome the plane and expressed great “relief”.

“It’s a dream being realised today thanks to the support of our UN and international partners,” he told reporters.—AFP