Lebanon extends total lockdown for 2 weeks

Beirut, Feb 6 Caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has announced the extension of the ongoing total lockdown for two additional weeks amid the increasing number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus.

Addressing a meeting of the Covid-19 ministerial committee, Dian said the extension will come to effect from Monday onwards, Xinhua news agency.

However, the committee has decided to allow banks, supermarkets and a few factories to operate under specific restrictions during the extended lockdown period.

"We will continue to take strict measures to avoid high numbers of infections and deaths from the virus," Diab said during the meeting.

On Friday, Lebanon registered 98 Covid-19 fatalities, the largest single-day count since the onset of the pandemic last year, raising the death toll to 3,495, according to the Health Ministry.

While the number of total infections went up by 3,071 to 315,340.

The pandemic in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp has gone out of control due to a lack of proper support by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) caused by the agency's financial crisis, according to Elnashra website, an independent online newspaper.

The newspaper quoted activists in the camp as saying that a state of emergency may have to be announced in the camp very soon.

Lebanon is expected to receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines by mid-February.

The country, which is also undergoing a financial crisis, has approved the import by the private sector of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

( With inputs from IANS )