Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat said on Monday that Lebanon must declare an "emergency and media alert" because the majority of Lebanese seem to undermine the threat of COVID-19 coronavirus.

An Israeli reconnaissance drone crashed Sunday evening into Lebanese territory, the Israeli army said.

The Israeli military said the drone was on a mission over the border area.

Lebanon recorded 168 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Sunday evening.

MP Michel Daher of the Strong Lebanon bloc announced Sunday that he and all his family members have tested negative for coronavirus.

Seventeen medics from the Zahle department of the Lebanese Red Cross have tested positive for COVID-19, the organization said on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Lebanon and Syria over “any attack against Israel emanating from their territories.”

“Regarding the northern front, we are acting according to our consistent policy of not allowing Iran to entrench militarily on our northern border. Lebanon and Syria bear the responsibility for any attack against Israel emanating from their territories,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said neutrality would “restore Lebanon’s historic role as a bridge between the East and the West at the cultural, economic and commercial levels.”

Stressing the importance of the country’s “liberal economy and democratic openness,” al-Rahi said neutrality would strengthen domestic unity, safeguard Lebanon’s “entity, sovereignty and independence,” and enhance “national partnership, stability and good governance.”

Doctor Firass Abiad, head of the main public hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Lebanon, warned Sunday that the country is on the brink of “losing control” in its battle against the coronavirus pandemic, a day after it saw its highest daily tally since the first case was recorded on February 21.

“Lebanon stands on a knife-edge,” Abiad, who is the manager and CEO of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, cautioned in a series of English-language tweets.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and MP Alain Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement tested negative for COVID-19 after MP George Okais of the LF announced that he had contracted the virus.

As al-Jadeed TV reported that Berri tested negative for the virus, Geagea’s press office declared that “after it turned out that MP George Okais of the Strong Republic bloc is infected with coronavirus, LF leader Samir Geagea underwent a PCR test yesterday and the result came out negative.”

A video recording circulated on social media outlets on Saturday of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah wearing a face mask in what seems an encouragement to abide by safety precautions against the recent surge of COVID-19 in Lebanon.