Lebanon’s health authorities have launched a Covid-19 vaccination “marathon” to speed up inoculations around the country, including areas where turnout has so far been low, AP reports.

The daylong campaign offered AstraZeneca vaccines at 30 different centres around the country without prior appointment to encourage people over 30 to show up. The capital Beirut was not included in the campaign.

“We are living [in] many crises and our way to revive our economic life and restore some Lebanese social and culture norms forces us to think of greater ways for immunisation in shorter periods,” Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hassan told a local TV station.

Pictures of lines outside centres north of Beirut showed turnout was high, particularly among foreign workers, many of whom had been reluctant or unable to register on the government-operated digital platform. There were also lines in towns and villages in the east and mountains, where turnout has so far been fickle.