The Coronavirus Follow-up Committee announced new mitigative measures to combat the resurging spread of the virus in Lebanon.
The Committee met on Friday afternoon with a number of public health officials and representatives of several Lebanese ministries and agreed to “return to the fourth stage of the sector reopening plan, with some modifications…”
As such, the following businesses will be temporarily closed:
- Pubs and nightclubs.
- Indoor swimming pools.
- Theaters and cinemas.
- Indoor and outdoor children’s video game centers and amusement parks.
- Gyms.
- Popular marketplaces (souks).
- Gambling centers (may open without exceeding 50% of their customer capacity).
- Restaurants and cafes (may open without exceeding 50% of their customer capacity).
Furthermore, organized beach and pool parties, in addition to concerts and other parties will be suspended, and so will social and religious ceremonies.
That is with the exception of wedding parties, wherein social distancing rules and other preventive health measures must be followed.
On that note, wedding parties must not exceed 50% of the operational capacity of the places in which they are held, and the total number of individual attendants must not exceed 50 for indoor venues and 150 for outdoor venues.
The above recommendations will take effect starting Monday, July 27th, and will remain effective for one week.
In addition to the aforementioned measures, the officials agreed to several precautionary terms, most notably:
- All cross-border (land, sea, and air) arrivals to Lebanon will be obligated to present negative PCR test results dating less than 96 hours (4 days) from the date of travel; before they acquire the boarding pass.
- Arrivals from countries of which the PCR test is not accredited by Lebanon (to be specified) will be isolated in hotels determined by the Tourism Ministry until their test results, conducted at the Beirut airport, are revealed. Then, those arrivals will each take an additional test at a local accredited laboratory.
- At least one hotel will be approved by the Tourism Ministry as an isolation center for confirmed positive cases among non-Lebanese arrivals, at their own expense.
- The elderly (over 60 years of age) must commit to their places of residence and not leave them unless absolutely necessary. Contact with the elderly must also be avoided.
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