Lebanon’s Total COVID-19 Infections 42,159, Deaths at 386

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered a record of 1,291 coronavirus cases Friday, in addition to 12 new deaths, as 111 towns and villages across the country will undergo a weeklong lockdown starting Sunday.

Only seven of the new reported cases were detected from people traveling into Lebanon from abroad. There has been a total of 42,159 registered cases and 386 deaths due to coronavirus complications since the illness was first detected on February 21.

The positivity rate among the 15,943 tests carried out – the highest number of PCR tests administered until now – on the local population over the past 24 hours was 8.8%.

Lebanon has witnessed an unrelenting surge in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. Daily cases in the past week have been above the 1,000 mark.

As the virus continues to spread on the community level, with new record number of daily cases being registered every few days, 111 towns and villages where a high number of infections will go under lockdown for a week starting Sunday.

This comes after Lebanese authorities earlier in the week introduced a new zonal approach to containing coronavirus as the number of cases passed 40,000 Thursday. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s media office said the ministerial committee to follow up on the coronavirus agreed on introducing the "zonal system," also known as the "traffic light system," as a way to determine the containment measures to be implemented in different areas.

In red areas which are “high risk," or more than eight cases per 100,000 people over 14 days, residents will be required to stay at home and there will be a local lockdown.

Rising hospitalizations and ICU admissions are also a growing concern for the authorities. There were 178 people in intensive care Monday, up 183% since the start of the month and 556% since the start of August, when just 32 people were occupying ICU beds.