The National News Agency just confirmed 10 new cases in the past 24 hours by announcing the new total to be 109 coronavirus infections in Lebanon on Monday, March 16th.
The Ministry of Public Health had announced the total number of cases to be 99 in its last report on Sunday, March 15th after 6 new cases were recorded in Lebanon.
Also on Sunday, the Lebanese government declared general mobilization and labeled the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic a health emergency.
As such, from March 18th until March 29th, Lebanon will accordingly shut its Rafik Hariri International Airport as part of its emergency measures.
On a side note, Minister of Public Health Hamad Hasan met with the Chinese ambassador to Lebanon on Sunday night in Beirut.
The minister held a press conference to thank China for the recent airport screening equipment it donated to Lebanon.
And this morning, Minister Hasan issued a statement warning people of the dangers of public transportation at this time and declaring the next two weeks to be the most critical.
“The first factor in the transmission of the epidemic is public transportation, and the awareness of drivers and society is as important as all measures taken to combat the coronavirus,” Hasan explained.
A while after the minister’s warning, the Director-General of the Ministry of Public Health also released a statement.
He stated that he “is not responsible for and not tasked with receiving any kind of gifts or quotations from any country or reference, related to equipment and supplies to combat the coronavirus epidemic.”
And “since this issue is outside the powers of the Director-General of the Ministry of Public Health,” he continued, “all donors, interested persons, and interested parties are kindly requested to review the responsible authorities,” namely the Lebanese Prime Minister.
After the 10 new cases were confirmed on Monday, Lebanon has exceeded the 100-mark for the total confirmed COVID-19 cases.
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