Lebanon Records 595 New COVID-19 Cases, Five Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon recorded 595 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths Sunday, as Lebanon’s leading figurehead in the fight against the virus warned that Lebanon was “still in the eye of the storm.”

A total of 595 of the new cases were registered among the local population, whereas 28 came from arriving travelers. A total of 8,642 virus tests were conducted over the last 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 8.4 percent.

There has now been a total of 160 deaths in Lebanon as a result of the virus since it was first detected in the country in late-February.

On the back of alarmingly high numbers in recent weeks, head of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital Dr. Firass Abiad said Sunday that “the current figures for Corona in Lebanon clearly indicate that we are still in the eye of the storm.”

“With the lockdown measures eased, a new strategy must be formulated to confront the virus,” Abiad said.

Lebanon relaxed its lockdown measures Friday following mounting pressure from individuals and businesses struggling as a result of the worst economic crisis the country has seen since the Civil War.

For months, Lebanon has been debating whether to prioritize public health in the knowledge that the health sector would not be able to cope with a full-scale outbreak, or negate this in favor of buttressing the economy at a time when it is already on its knees.