Lebanon Registers 2,298 New Coronavirus Cases, 21 More Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon registered 21 coronavirus related deaths, and 2,298 new cases Tuesday, as the caretaker prime minister announced that a decision on a lockdown would be taken next week.

As daily coronavirus cases increased, with restrictions eased during the holidays’ season and with people treating virus prevention in a negligent manner, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab Tuesday told journalists that a lockdown was possible if cases continued to increase.

He said a decision on the matter would be taken next Monday after the coronavirus committee assesses the situation.

Among the new cases reported Tuesday, 17 were travelers arriving from abroad, bringing the total number of cases in Lebanon since the virus was first detected in the country in late February to 175,118. The total number of deaths now stands at 1,430.

A total of 23,841 PCR tests have been administered in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 13.5 percent.

The Health Ministry said that 426 patients were in the ICU and 142 on mechanical ventilation.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan Tuesday also warned that the worst was yet to come next month, adding that cases are expected to surge after January 10.

However, Hassan said that a debate over a national lockdown was meaningless, stressing that a localized lockdown system will be implemented that targets infection clusters in towns and villages.