World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a response plan had been activated to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and water sampling.

The case was confirmed in Akkar, the country’s northernmost governorate.

Speaking in Geneva late Wednesday, Tedros noted that the Lebanese health authorities had launched an oral vaccination drive in August targeting 350,000 people.

But this health campaign had been “interrupted by the escalation in violence”, he said, a reference to intensifying exchanges of fire by Hezbollah and the Israeli military since the Gaza war erupted last October and last month’s intensifying strikes by Israel, amid ongoing Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli communities