A top hospital director has warned that Lebanon's deepening economic crisis has piled pressure on hospitals, leaving them ill-equipped to face any new wave of the coronavirus, AFP reports.

Already struggling with shortages of medicine and an exodus of staff abroad, the country's health facilities are now also having to contend with almost round-the-clock power cuts.

“All hospitals ... are now less prepared than they were during the wave at the start of the year,” said Firass Abiad, the manager of the largest public hospital in the country battling Covid-19.

“Medical and nursing staff have left, medicine that was once available has run out,” and ever-lengthening cuts to the main power supply have left hospitals under constant threat.