Syria is sending emergency supplies of oxygen to Lebanon, where hospitals have 1,000 patients on respirators and are about to run out, ministers in both countries were quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Syria will send 75 tonnes of oxygen over three days, its health minister, Hassan al-Ghobash, told state news agency SANA.

Lebanese hospitals have only a single day's supply left as bad weather has prevented transport ships from docking, its caretaker health minister, Hamad Hasan, told Syrian state broadcaster Ekhbariya.

Hasan did not specify if the patients on respirators had COVID-19.

"This response ...will save Lebanese lives and is enough for three days until supplies arrive," Hasan was quoted as saying by SANA.