Lebanon Records 4,988 New COVID-19 Cases & 35 Deaths

Lebanon Records 4,988 New COVID-19 Cases & 35 Deaths
The Daily Star/Mohamad Azakir

Lebanon recorded 4,988 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases on Wednesday, according to the Health Ministry’s daily report on the epidemic, hours before the country goes into a stringent 11-day lockdown.

35 COVID-19 patients passed away due to complications of the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,740.

Recoveries, on the other hand, have risen to a total of 145,873 after 1,016 patients recovered between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Since its detection for the first time in Lebanon back in February, the virus has infected 231,936 people in the country, of which 84,323 are active, and 2,283,225 PCR tests have been administered, including 27,672 in the past 24 hours.

According to the Health Ministry‘s Wednesday report, 1,651 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, of which 176 are on mechanical ventilation and 627 are in critical condition in intensive care units.

Starting at 5 AM Thursday, a 24/7 curfew will be activated and remain in effect throughout the period of the new lockdown, which ends on January 25th, subject to extension.

During this period, private hospitals will be obligated to allocate additional space in their intensive care units for COVID-19 patients in order to reduce the strain on the overwhelmed governmental hospitals.

On Tuesday, the Health Ministry registered 4,557 new infections and 32 deaths.

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