The Order of Malta’s Lebanese Association, St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation and Notre-Dame Maritime Hospital in the Jbeil district – near Byblos – have established a partnership to step up the fight against the pandemic. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed on 13 April, involves synergistic cooperation to combat Covid-19 more effectively and alleviate the Lebanese hospitals, faced with ever-increasing numbers of patients.

The Order of Malta, with its hospitaller tradition and widespread presence in the land of the Cedars, will manage the medical aspects of the project, providing respiratory assist devices and medicines for hospital use.

The President of the Order of Malta’s Lebanese Association, Marwan Sehnaoui, pointed out the vocation that unites three institutions ‘around people and their dignity’. The initiative will alleviate the pressure on other hospitals and provide all-round patient care – from testing to medical monitoring at home, from hospitalization for intermediate-risk patients to rehabilitation and vaccination. All this is provided free to reach the most vulnerable sections of the population.