Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday stressed that his party had no knowledge of any Lebanese-American deal to release former Khiyam Prison warden Amer Fakhoury from prison.

“We have no knowledge of a deal to release Amer Fakhoury and what we know is that there was no deal,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.

A senior U.S. official said Friday that there was no deal made to secure Amer Fakhoury's release from Lebanese prisons.

Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, the official ruled out the possibility that a promise was made to send aid or to release Lebanese prisoners held in the U.S.

President Michel Aoun on Friday reiterated his call for citizens to stay home and abide by the two-week lockdown declared by the government in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

“As we witness how the coronavirus pandemic is killing people around the world, I reiterate my call for the Lebanese on the need to stay home and not go out unless necessary,” Aoun tweeted.

Heavy traffic and pedestrian movement was witnessed Friday in some impoverished areas of the northern city of Tripoli despite the government’s lockdown order over the coronavirus crisis, state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the popular souks in Mahram, Bab al-Tabbaneh, al-Qobbeh and Abi Samra were bustling with people as street vendors spread their chariots and some citizens gathered around coffee kiosks.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Friday stressed that “the crime of collaboration with the Israeli enemy cannot be forgotten,” a day after former Khiyam Prison warden Amer Fakhoury arrived in the U.S. after spending around five months in Lebanese prisons.

“Heaven’s justice won’t drop the rights of martyrs and liberated captives due to ‘passage of time,’” Diab tweeted, criticizing Fakhoury’s controversial release.

Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni met with the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis who reiterated the international agency's support for Lebanon, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Foreign Minister Nasif Hitti summoned the US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and listened to an explanation on how Amer Fakhoury was carried away out of the country from the U.S. embassy, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

The Health Ministry released on Friday its daily report on the tally of people infected with coronavirus saying the total number has reached 163 stressing the need for self quarantine.

Health Minister Hamad Hasan on Friday said after a joint meeting with the parliamentary health committee that Lebanon is preparing for stage four in its fight against coronavirus after registering six cases of unknown origin, stressing the need for community cooperation to stop its spread.

U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that former Khiyam Prison warden Amer Fakhoury was released Thursday to the United States, where he is a naturalized citizen.

Trump said that Fakhoury, a former member of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia who was detained on his return to Beirut in September, was suffering late-stage cancer. He added that Fakhoury “will now be able to receive the much needed care and treatment in the United States."