GENEVA  - U.N. agencies are scrambling to support victims of the devastating warehouse blast in Beirut, which has undermined an already weak health care system in Lebanon, officials said on Friday.

Damage to hospitals has removed 500 beds of capacity, a World Health Organization spokesman told a virtual United Nations briefing. Containers with thousands of personal protection equipment (PPE) items - used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 - have also been destroyed.

(Reporting by John Revill and Michael Shields) ((Michael.Shields@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 3630; Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))