Lebanon to partially reopen Monday

Lebanon will return to a cautious reopening of the country Monday after going through a second period of intensive lockdown measures designed counter coronavirus, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said.

The easing of restrictions came shortly after a Health Ministry source confirmed to The Daily Star that Lebanon registered 29 new cases over the past 24 hours.

“I announce today the reopening of the country as of tomorrow, based on the five-stage plan,” Diab said in a televised address Sunday. “This will require additional collective sacrifices and commitment, while quarantining neighborhoods and regions with high infection rates.”

Diab said that the gradual reopening of the country, which saw restaurants and hair salons conditionally go back to work last week, aimed to minimize the “serious economic and social repercussions” of lockdown. He added, however, that “saving people’s lives comes before any other calculation.”

The careful balancing of a return to economic life and preventing the spread of the virus comes down to individual responsibility. Diab said that it was unfortunate that “some people are risking their lives and are taking lightly the lives of others” by not committing to containment measures.

This led to the number of new internal cases to increase almost five times over the 10 days before the latest full lockdown, compared to the 10 days before that, Diab said.

“We have to remain vigilant, maintain social distancing and follow prevention and protection guidelines in order to safeguard our society and preserve our sacrifices,” he added. “I urge all Lebanese to deal with the reopening of the country very carefully, to partner with us in assuming responsibility and to accompany the state in protecting the society from collapse.”

Diab stood by the plan to continue expat repatriations, saying that the government had adopted more stringent measures to prevent returnees from bringing the virus to Lebanon. These include requiring PCR tests in some countries before expats board their return flights and “strengthening the internal follow-up of returnees and repeating the PCR test fourteen days after their return.”

The government hopes that Lebanon will remain at the containment stage of the pandemic, and Diab appealed to people in the country and returnees to have the long game in mind as Cabinet trials a return to quasi-normality two months after it declared a “general mobilization” against coronavirus.

“We are going through a dangerous and very sensitive period since the coronavirus crisis will last a very long time,” Diab warned.

Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi in a circular later announced the conditions of the partial reopening.

A 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew remains in place each day but restaurants and coffee shops can now open at 50 percent capacity. They may not serve narguileh and, like most other shops, can open between 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. while ensuring that customers are distanced safely from each other and that the necessary sanitization facilities are in place. Fast food and sweets shops may only offer take away services.

Commercial services, such as exchange shops, will operate between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., while the Central Bank will decide on whether to open financial institutions, and the Association of Banks in Lebanon will rule on the reopening of banks.

Tradespersons are allowed to work between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. and concrete workshops can open all week between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., except Sundays and national holidays.

Wholesale markets, grocers, butchers and fishmongers may operate between 3 a.m. and 6 p.m., while food warehouses work between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Chlorinated swimming pools may open between 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. but swimming in the sea is not permitted yet, nor is going to the park or beach, or walking along corniches. Cinema, malls and casinos will remain shut until further notice.

Vans and buses can operate at one-third of their capacity to carry passengers, who must all wear masks.

Only vehicles whose number plate ends in an odd number are allowed on the roads Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while even-plated vehicles only are allowed on the roads Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. All vehicles are allowed to drive Sundays. Municipalities have power to close roads within their areas.

Factories, mills, bakeries, medical companies, gas stations and hotels can operate at all times. Exceptions to these rules are in place for those who work in the media, security agencies and health professions.

Education Minister Tarek al-Majzoub meanwhile announce Sunday that he has proposed “canceling the 2020 round of official school exams in all branches, based on specific regulations and completing the school year.”

“All students are promoted to the higher grade according to regulations, and for universities we will present a special mechanism for online education,” Majzoub said.

He also announced the postponement of the reopening of schools and centers for people with special needs until a date to be determined by the Education Ministry.

“Preserving people’s lives is a priority, and we will make up for what we lost during the upcoming academic year,” confirmed Majzoub.

Earlier Sunday a spike of at least 17 new COVID-19 cases was confirmed in the town of Jdeidet al-Qaytaa in Lebanon’s northern Akkar province.

The cases in Akkar were discovered after a large medical team from St. George University Hospital travelled to the province Saturday to conduct testing.

A doctor of bacterial diseases who was part of the medical team tested positive for the disease, the state-run National News Agency reported Sunday. None of her other team members tested positive after tests were run on them following this discovery.

In total, 1449 PCR tests have now been conducted among the local population over the last 24 hours, with a further 442 tests conducted among returning expats who landed aboard nine flights Saturday.

Five more MEA flights were originally scheduled to arrive Sunday at Beirut airport from Doha, Paris, Lagos, Ouagadougou and Pointe Noire. The Doha flight was cancelled and 31 passengers on the flight from Lagos were discovered in pre-flight PCR tests to be carrying the virus. They were stopped from boarding and the flight was grounded for several hours before departing for Lebanon.

The Public Health Ministry reported May 6 that a total of 25 expats returning from Nigeria had tested positive for coronavirus, but positive test results among returnees have so far continued to steadily drop since then.