Lebanon Registers 1,368 COVID-19 Cases, Eight Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon recorded 1,368 new coronavirus cases Friday, with the virus showing no signs of retreat as it claimed eight more lives.

The tally of cases in the country now stands at 59,881 infections and 509 deaths.

Over the past 14 days, 11 percent of tests carried out on the local population have come back positive. Of the new cases Friday, 60 were detected among people traveling into the country from abroad.

The number of daily cases have remained over 1,000 despite a government imposed localized lockdown of 169 villages and towns Sunday.

Head of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital Dr. Firass Abiad said in a series of tweets Friday that virus prevention and lockdown measures were being loosely followed by people.

“The efforts at restricting community spread have not been well received. The compliance with safety measures remains below the required rates. The level of discontent, driven by a failing economy among other things, is high. The execution of the strategy was not great either,” he said.

Abiad said the number of coronavirus ICU beds had increased in recent days, but noted that their distribution was not equal as some regions were still working at nearly full capacity.

Abiad warned that Lebanon could not stay on the same course as numbers increased.

“The spread has to be restricted,” he said.

The head of the main hospital receiving coronavirus patients explained that two aspects of the disease should be taken into consideration: prevention and treatment.

“In a pandemic, prevention is critical, treatment is costly both in lives and in economy. The real fight with COVID remains at the community level”.