Lebanon on Thursday extended by two weeks a 24-hour lockdown imposed earlier this month in a bid to deal with a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

An inter-ministerial Committee convened at the Grand Serail and decided to extend the lockdown till February 8.

The decision was based on a recommendation of the Higher Defense Council which convened earlier on Thursday in a meeting chaired by President Michel Aoun at Baabda Presidential Council.

At the Baabda meeting, President Aoun hailed compliance of the Lebanese citizens with the lockdown measures, stressing importance of going ahead with such measures.

The meeting at Grand Serail was chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab nd attended by several other ministers. Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan, who was last week infected by the virus attended the meeting via video conference.

Diab called on Hasan to speed up the implementation of vaccination plan, as he urged citizens to comply with the lockdown measures.

Lebanon has been in the last weeks registering high records in both infections and deaths. Last week, more than 6,000 infections and some 50 deaths were recorded in one day. Yesterday (Wednesday) the country recorded more than 4,000 cases and 64 related fatalities.

Source: Al-Manar Eglish Website