Lebanon Registers Record of 4,988 Coronavirus Deaths on Eve of Lockdown

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon Wednesday registered 35 coronavirus deaths, a new one-day record, and 4,988 cases on the eve of a complete nationwide lockdown to curb this dangerous spread of the virus.

There were no cases detected among travelers arriving in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry report, with the total number of cases since the virus was first detected in the country in late February rising to 231,936. The total number of deaths now stands at 1,740.

The previous record was recorded Tuesday, with 32 patients losing their lives.

A total of 27,672 PCR tests have been administered in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 17.1 percent.

The Health Ministry said 1,651 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 627 in ICUs and 176 on mechanical ventilation.

The country is set to go under a complete lockdown Thursday until Jan. 25, a period declared as a “state of emergency” by authorities.

An all-day curfew is also set to go into effect Thursday, with only a handful of establishments allowed to open, including supermarkets that can only operate for deliveries.

Head of the Syndicate of Supermarket Owners Nabil Fahd warned that most shops do not have the capacity to deal with an overload of delivery requests once the lockdown begins and called on authorities to reconsider their decision to ban people from physically shopping for goods.

As cases surged, caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan announced he had gone into self-isolation mode as three of his staff members had caught the virus, adding that he would stay in quarantine until his PCR results were out.