Heartbreaking. Another Covid hospital on fire in, a result of years of underinvestment in infrastructure and safety measures. In Lebanon, most public hospitals have also long suffered from underfunding. The financial crisis has made things worse.

At the same time, the demands on public hospitals are soaring, as private healthcare becomes unaffordable to most. To respond, those hospitals will have to reallocate budgets from infrastructure investments to buying supplies and meds. This vicious cycle will not end well.

Services are interconnected. A domino effect means one failure leads to another. Last weekend, the Pfizer marathon was cancelled due to shortages. Yesterday, some vaccine centers did not run smoothly. This will undermine the response to a new Covid wave. Tough times ahead.