Aoun Urges Health Emergency, Diab Calls for Strict Implementation of Measures

President Michel Aoun on Monday called for a “state of health emergency” in the country to “confront the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.”

“The tragedy we are witnessing at the doors of hospitals requires drastic measures so that we manage to alleviate the disastrous repercussions of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic,” Aoun added at the beginning of an emergency meeting for the country’s Higher Defense Council.

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab for his part said that authorities “have taken new and stricter measures,” calling on military and security agencies to be “firm in enforcing them.”

“Failure to implement them means the occurrence of a complete collapse of the health situation,” Diab warned.

“The coronavirus pandemic has gone out of control due to people’s intransigence and their rebellion against the measures that we took to protect the Lebanese. Let us also admit that enforcing the implementation of the measures did not rise to the level of danger,” Diab said.