On Saturday, March 21st, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health confirmed that 24 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in Lebanon in the past 24 hours.
In the daily COVID-19 report, the ministry announced: “From February 21st until March 21st, 2020, the total of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 187.”
This total reflects all COVID-19-positive cases across Lebanon, including those recorded by Rafik Hariri University hospital as well as other university hospitals accredited by the Health Ministry.
The ministry is still “undergoing epidemiological investigation on some recently diagnosed cases” to determine how they contracted the coronavirus. Several new cases have lately caught the virus from their local community.
This has prompted the Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hasan, to warn that Lebanon may slip into the fourth stage of the epidemic if the guidelines of Lebanese authorities are not adhered to by the citizens.
This stage usually follows cases of community infections and translates to a wider scale of spread across the country.
This is why the Health Ministry, with every daily report, insists and restates that all citizens must “adhere to the strict measures issued by the official references and to stay in their houses, except when absolutely necessary.”
Self-isolation is a measure that immensely helps Lebanese authorities limit and contain the epidemic before it reaches critical stages like in some countries such as Italy.
On a brighter note, according to the ministry’s latest data, a total of 8 coronavirus patients have fully recovered and were released from quarantine after testing negative for COVID-19.
This means that 5 recoveries have been recorded in the past 24 hours. Moreover, recently, 13 patients were released to home quarantine after clinically recovering from the disease.
The Ministry of Public Health assures that it “continues to monitor samples from all suspected cases, as well as monitor all contacts and arrivals from countries experiencing a local spread of the virus.”
As of Saturday, March 21st, 4 of the total recorded cases are considered in critical condition, while the rest are stable.
Furthermore, 8 suspected patients remain in isolation awaiting their COVID-19 test results. Yesterday, the ministry confirmed 14 new COVID-19 positive cases, announcing the total to be 163 as of March 20th.
