Lebanon Records 155 New COVID-19 Cases, Another Death

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon recorded 155 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death Sunday, as the country nears the halfway point of 10-day lockdown period.

Of the new cases, 145 were found among local residents and 10 among travelers who had entered Lebanon within the past 24 hours. A total of 5,865 PCR tests were conducted during that period, giving a positivity rate of 2.6 percent. The positivity rate Saturday stood at 2 percent, with 175 of the 8,738 tests yielding positive results.

Relatively, Lebanon is set to pause lockdown restrictions Tuesday for a period of two days before re-imposing them again between Thursday and Sunday.

A second wave of infections in July hit the crisis-hit country, which is going through is worse ever financial crisis. A total of 2,777 were recorded that month - a sum that is greater than the number of cases recorded in the five previous months combined.

Based on the current infection rate, it takes 20 days for Lebanon to double the total number of recorded cases. This is 2.1 times faster than the worldwide average doubling rate of 41 days.

The government has been forced into once again closing most public places to limit the spread of the deadly virus, which has now killed 62 people in the country. The authorities have said, however, that they do not intend to close the airport. Nor have they re-imposed restrictions on driving as was the case when the first lockdown went into action in mid-March.