Lebanon’s Virus Death Toll Over 2,000 With Another Daily Record

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon Tuesday registered 61 coronavirus deaths, a new record for the second day in a row, taking the death toll to over 2,000, while also registering 4,359 more cases, fueling calls to extend the country's total lockdown.

The cases were registered in 22,912 PCR tests, a Health Ministry report said. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 20 percent.

Among the newly recorded cases, only 10 were detected among travelers arriving in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry report, with the total number of cases since the virus was detected in the country in late February rising to 260,315.

Lebanon recorded then a record 53 deaths Monday. The overall number of coronavirus-related deaths since February stands at 2,020.

The Health Ministry said 2,176 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 799 in ICUs and 246 on ventilators.

Earlier in the day, the head of Lebanon's main coronavirus hospital called for the extension of the current total lockdown beyond January 25, warning that the COVID-19 spread was out of control.

"Easing the lockdown cannot occur if the virus is spreading unchecked in the community," Dr. Firass Abiad, head of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, wrote in a tweet. "The infection is not under control."