Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday called on the government to hold an extraordinary session to discuss the issue of bringing home Lebanese expats amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Friday inspected the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, which is leading the country's medical fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The Health Ministry said on Friday that Lebanon registered 23 new cases of coronavirus and one death.

Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said the measures will be tightened to ensure that the state of “general mobilization” declared by the government meets the desired goal in controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Employees and staff at the governmental Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the leading medical facility fighting coronavirus, plan to stage a sit-in on Friday to protest nonpayment of their rights.

The committee of employees and contract workers said in a statement: “Employees and staff at the hospital have suffered and sacrificed since the opening of the hospital, especially during the spread of coronavirus, but until this moment they have not received their full rights such as the (salaries based on the 2017) wage scale law.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Thursday warned that the coronavirus epidemic is more dangerous than both terrorism and an Israeli invasion, calling for the appropriation of seaside properties for quarantine purposes.

“We need to declare a state of emergency, seeing as death is at the doors and coronavirus is more dangerous than Israeli invasion,” Jumblat said in an interview with MTV.

Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad on Thursday explained what the government intends to do regarding the Lebanese citizens who want to return to their country due to the global coronavirus crisis.

“The Lebanese abroad who want to return to Lebanon after April 12 must fill in forms and a mechanism will be devised before March 30 to facilitate bank transfers to them,” Abdul Samad said in remarks reported by MTV.

The Israeli army brought down a small drone belonging to Hizbullah after it entered Israel’s airspace on Thursday morning, a spokesman said.

“The drone is now in the possession of the Israeli army,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a tweet.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday lauded the latest decisions taken by Cabinet and the Higher Defense Council in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

“What has been issued by Cabinet and the Higher Defense Council as to the state of health emergency, which I have been demanding from the very beginning, is a positive step in the right direction,” Berri said in a statement.

The Lebanese government on Thursday extended the so-called state of general mobilization until April 12 and ordered a general closure from 7pm until 5am with some exceptions, in an amplification of the anti-coronavirus measures, the information minister said.

The Premiership later said in a statement that only mills, bakeries, pharmacies and medical factories will be exempt from the 7pm-5am closure order, adding that citizens and residents will be barred from being on the streets.