A Lebanese Army helicopter has flown to Egypt and returned ten Lebanese officers and a non-commissioned officer to Lebanon amid the coronavirus pandemic, the army said on Sunday.

The military noted that the eleven personnel had been on a training mission.

Lebanon’s confirmed coronavirus cases surged 26 over the past 24 hours to reach 438, as two elderly virus patients passed away, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

In a statement, the Ministry said the tally includes cases reported by the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital and private hospitals and laboratories.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that the right of Lebanese stuck abroad to return home should not be subject to debate, as the country grapples with the novel coronavirus pandemic that killed six so far and infected 412.

Security forces on Saturday removed all the tents that protesters erected in Beirut’s Martyr Square and Riad al-Solh since Lebanon’s uprising on October 17.

The Health Ministry said on Saturday that one more death and 21 new cases of coronavirus have been detected on Saturday.

The Ministry said an elderly in his 80s has died as the result of the virus and that he already had other chronic diseases. His death raises the number of victims to eight.

As the pandemic continues to spread, governments across the Middle East are clamping down on the region's cherished traditions: No more massive weddings and celebrations. No more evenings spent mostly by men in traditional coffee shops across the region. And most importantly, no more smoking of the beloved shisha, or water pipe, in public places.

Lebanon Friday pledged to finalise a plan to restructure the country's massive debt by the end of 2020, just weeks after its first default in history.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement on Saturday that its troops have deployed around all Lebanese regions to ensure that a curfew order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus is respected.

Despite the opposition it faces by various political parties, a group of bankers are reportedly trying to again push a capital control bill, that organizes the relation between banks and depositors, to the Cabinet table for approval amid a financial crisis and shortage in dollars, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Lebanon on Friday started implementing beefed up “general mobilization” measures with the closure of all shops including supermarkets at 5:00 pm and a curfew that starts at 7:00 pm and ends at 5:00 am.

Only pharmacies, bakeries, mills, medical and hygiene product factories, gas stations, media outlets, hotels, private security firms and crews related to sanitation, neighborhood generator providers and the electricity and internet sectors will be allowed to operate uninterrupted, the Internal Security Forces said.