Govt. Decides to Shut Down Country from Thursday to Sunday

The government on Tuesday decided to fully shut down the country from Wednesday evening until Monday morning at the recommendation of the health minister, in the wake of the biggest spike in weeks in the numbers of coronavirus cases.

“The general lockdown measures will include exceptions as in the first phase,” Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi told reporters after a Cabinet session at the presidential palace in Baabda.

“We will carry out a reevaluation on Sunday and the expat repatriation process will continue,” the minister added.

Fahmi will later issue a statement detailing the measures and exceptions that will be implemented, the National News Agency said.

Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad said "the full lockdown will begin at 7pm Wednesday and end at 5am Monday, with the exemption of health, agricultural, industrial and foodstuff institutions."

"It is necessary that citizens stay home and not go out unless it is extremely necessary," the minister added.

She also announced that a meeting will be held at 5pm Tuesday to "take a decision on the issue of flights from abroad," noting that "it is not fair to aggrieve some people because of others."

Lebanon has officially announced 870 cases of COVID-19, including 26 deaths.

Last month the crisis-hit country started to slowly emerge from a weeks-long lockdown that has aggravated its worst economic crisis since 1975-1990 civil.

Restaurants, cafes and some pubs have reopened at 30 per cent capacity, mosques have resumed prayers, and many people are back at work.

But "the rate at which the coronavirus is spreading from one person to the other has accelerated in our community in the past three days," Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday, explaining why his government is tightening lockdown measures.

He said the country has recorded more than 100 new infections over four days, accusing some of "negligence and lack of responsibility" for violating government measures to stem the coronavirus.

The new virus cases include repatriated Lebanese nationals who have returned to the country en masse in recent weeks.