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Officials are imposing a strict new lockdown as COVID-19 pushes Lebanon’s hospitals to the brink

BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities have announced sudden, dramatic measures as the COVID-19 pandemic tests the limits of the country’s health care system, pushing hospitals to capacity. Following 24...

Emily Lewis, 11 January 2021

Lebanon has registered 3,095 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a record for a Monday. Twenty-three more people have died from the virus, bringing the death toll to 1,629

11 January 2021

The Beirut airport will stay open at reduced capacity with travelers from Baghdad, Istanbul, Adana, Cairo and Addis Ababa required to quarantine for 7 days in a hotel; those arriving from other cities for 2 days. All travelers must undergo a PCR test on arrival and another after

11 January 2021

Authorities have declared a state of public health emergency from Thursday till Jan. 25. Vehicular traffic will be prohibited, with limited exceptions; supermarkets, bakeries, restaurants and other food stores will only be allowed to operate for delivery between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.

11 January 2021

Lebanon’s Order of Physicians has appealed to doctors to suspend all non-urgent and routine medical procedures, urging them to focus efforts on “emergencies, especially patients infected with COVID-19”

11 January 2021

The Economy Ministry has raised the price of a 900-gram loaf of partially subsidized bread from LL2,000 to LL2,250. This is the second increase from the loaf’s pre-October 2019 price of LL1,500

11 January 2021

Judge Fadi Sawwan can proceed with the Beirut port blast investigation after the Court of Cassation returned the file without ruling on a request from former ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil, who are charged in the case, to remove him from the probe, the NNA reports

11 January 2021

Amid widespread panic buying ahead of a potential weeklong lockdown, the food importers' syndicate said there is enough food stored to last the country at least two months and urged consumers to buy in moderation, saying the crowds “will increase the spread of the epidemic”

11 January 2021

In light of the shortage of oxygen machines and demand from people who want to buy them as a precautionary measure, the syndicate for medical device importers has issued a request to its members that they only sell to patients who show proof of a positive COVID-19 test

11 January 2021

Parliamentary health committee head MP Assem Araji (Future/Zahle) said after a virtual meeting of the committee Monday that they had agreed to proceed quickly to pass a law allowing for “emergency use” of the COVID-19 vaccine, in order to get the vaccine as soon as possible

11 January 2021

Honorary Consul of Madagascar in Lebanon Mouhamad El Jouzou has submitted a request to intervene in a lawsuit over a contract that would give greater rights to migrant domestic workers. He asked the Shura Council to reverse its decision to block the contract from taking effect

11 January 2021

Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said on Twitter that he had ordered LL75 billion (about $8.6 million at the black market exchange rate) to be released to the Higher Relief Council to provide aid to families suffering from economic hardship during the COVID-19 lockdown

11 January 2021

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan refused to attend today’s meeting of a ministerial committee tasked with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic “in order to object to the decision taken by the committee” not to impose a lockdown before the holidays, local media outlets report

11 January 2021

On the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, the Lebanese Red Cross faces a new challenge: hospital bed shortages

“I feel more secure on a mission with a positive patient than being out in society,” says Christina el-Hage, 27, who has been a first aid worker with the Lebanese Red Cross for 10 years. “It is...

Lyana ALAMEDDINE, 11 January 2021

Residents of Beirut and surrounding areas have reported traffic jams and crowded supermarkets as panic buying followed reports that grocery stores will be closed during the potential one-week full lockdown of the country to be discussed by the Higher Defense Council later today

11 January 2021

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has said a “complete, strict and firm closure of the country” is necessary “to protect the Lebanese from themselves due to the recklessness of a large part of them” and to avoid “a Lebanese model that is more dangerous than the Italian model”

11 January 2021

Massoud “Poussy” Achkar, one of the founding members of the Lebanese Forces militia and a parliamentary candidate in the 2018 elections on the FPM-allied list in East Beirut, died early this morning at Rizk Hospital, where he had been hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19

11 January 2021

Total lockdown talks, COVID-19 airport rules, lira peg ‘finished’: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

Lebanon may be headed for a tougher lockdown after the Higher Defense Council meets this afternoon. President Michel Aoun called the special meeting of the council Sunday, in light of the steadily...

11 January 2021