The Higher Defense Council met in extraordinary session in Baabda to declare the state of emergency. (Credit: Dalati & Nohra)
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The Higher Defense Council announced a state of public health emergency starting Thursday and running until Jan. 25, ramping up lockdown measures to curb a surge in coronavirus infections. A total curfew will come into effect barring vehicular traffic with few exceptions afforded to media personnel, health care workers, pharmacists, diplomats and members of the Red Cross. Supermarkets, bakeries, restaurants and other food stores will only be allowed to operate for delivery between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Public and private institutions, including commercial banks, will be closed during the lockdown with petrol stations, money transfer shops, exchange dealers and pharmacies allowed to operate in varying time slots.
Lebanon set grim coronavirus records on three fronts. 3,095 people tested positive, the highest number of cases for a Monday; 27.1 percent of local PCR tests came back positive, the most severe local PCR positivity rate since the beginning of the outbreak; and 585 people were in ICU, another record. With the outbreak spiraling out of control, the Order of Physicians appealed to doctors to suspend all non-urgent and routine medical procedures, urging them to focus efforts on “emergencies, especially patients infected with COVID-19.”
Lebanese rushed to stock up on food and essential goods, causing a number of items to run out. The run on stores came after local media outlets ran unsubstantiated reports that grocery stores and supermarkets would be shuttered during the extended lockdown. Full parking lots and huge lines formed in front of supermarkets across the country, prompting the food importers’ syndicate to issue a statement urging shoppers to avoid excessively stockpiling anything. It said that importers have stocks that would last Lebanon at least two months and urged consumers to buy in moderation, adding that large crowds “will increase the spread of the virus.”
In the midst of the craze, the Economy Ministry announced a hike in the price of bread. The price of a 900-gram loaf of partially subsidized bread was raised from LL2,000 to LL2,250, the second hike from the loaf’s pre-October 2019 price of LL1,500. The move came after the 13,300 tons of wheat donated by the Iraqi government following the August port blast ran out, coupled with an increase in international prices and further depreciation of the local currency, the ministry said. However, the increase in prices will not stop at flatbread, a staple food for the majority of Lebanese, but will also affect other breadstuff such as baguettes, Ali Ibrahim, the head of the Bakeries’ Syndicate, told MTV.
The probe into the Beirut explosion is set to resume after a green light from a high court. The Court of Cassation’s Sixth Chamber issued an interim decision allowing the lead investigator, Judge Fadi Sawwan, to restart hearings in the case until a final decision is handed down. Sawwan’s work was paused on Dec. 17 due to a procedural motion filed by ex-ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil contesting the judge’s legal and constitutional grounds to charge them with criminal negligence in the Aug. 4 explosion alongside caretaker Premier Hassan Diab and former Public Works Minister Youssef Fenianos. A judicial source told our sister publication L’Orient-Le Jour that the court is likely to reject the motion in its final decision.