Lebanon broke its daily coronavirus (COVID-19) case record on Thursday with an alarming increase in infection cases that provoked a call for the immediate closure of the country.
In its daily COVID-19 report, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced that 3,507 new cases had been recorded between Wednesday and Thursday.
The number was a significant jump from the previous day’s 2,878 cases, and it prompted Lebanon’s Civil Emergency Authority to hold an emergency virtual meeting.
The authority consequently called on President Michel Aoun and the Lebanese government to urgently impose a total lockdown starting Friday, January 1st, at least for a month.
The new lockdown, if implemented, must include public institutions and administrations, municipalities and their federations, banks, schools, public and private universities, companies and institutions of all kinds, in addition to justice palaces, the authority stressed.
It added that closure must also be complete, without partition or rotation, “at a closing rate of 24/24 hours,” and only exclude stores that sell food items, under tight conditions and exceptional measures for regulating the flow of customers.
Regarding traffic, the authority recommended the reinstatement of the even and odd license plate system that was adopted earlier, to be accompanied by added strictness by security forces in enforcing the lockdown and penalizing violations.
Finally, it placed itself and its volunteers at the disposal of the concerned authorities to help pass this stage with the least possible damages and contribute to reducing the number of infections.
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