by arabnews.com -- BASSAM ZAAZAA -- DUBAI: Amid a Cabinet-imposed lockdown to prevent the coronavirus spreading, Miss Lebanon 2015 Valerie Abou Chacra held her marriage party on Saturday despite wedding bans. Chacra, an actress, married Lebanese businessman Ziyad Ammar in an open-space wedding in Bkerke during which Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rai led the nuptials. The ceremony was followed by a wedding gala held for family and friends — flouting the nationwide lockdown. Following a surge in coronavirus cases, the Cabinet decided on the lockdown with strict regulations imposed by the health and interior ministries, so Lebanese were taken aback when photos and videos of Chacra’s wedding party surfaced on social media.

People took to social media to criticize the former beauty queen whom they accused, along with her husband, of being socially irresponsible for violating the ban. Meanwhile, other social media figures and users praised the “fancy and stylish” wedding. Social media users censured the authorities for allowing Chacra to carry on with her wedding celebration. The weekend witnessed a flurry of media statements from different ministries about allowing some prescheduled wedding parties to go ahead within strict social distancing and protective measures. In a televised interview with LBCI, Health Minister Dr. Hamad Hassan said that he had granted permission to seven wedding functions. “We have to adapt and live the joys and sorrows, but with certain procedures,” he said. However, the minister warned that in the case of any breach of procedures, the Interior Ministry would reconsider the exception.

by english.aawsat.com -- Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat Lebanon named the president's diplomatic adviser as new foreign minister on Monday after Nassif Hitti quit the post, blaming a lack of political will to enact reforms to halt a financial meltdown which he warned could turn Lebanon into a failed state. Foreign donors have made clear there will be no aid until Beirut makes changes to tackle state waste and corruption - roots of the crisis, which poses the biggest threat to Lebanon's stability since a 1975-1990 civil war. "Given the absence of an effective will to achieve structural, comprehensive reform which our society and the international community have urged us to do, I have decided to resign," Hitti said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab accepted the resignation and appointed Charbel Wehbe, Aoun's diplomatic adviser since 2017, as foreign minister, said two decrees read out by the cabinet's secretary general. Wehbe, 67, is a former secretary general of the foreign ministry. Hitti, a former ambassador to the Arab League, was appointed in January when Diab's cabinet took office with the support of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its allies. "I took part in this government to work for one boss called Lebanon, then I found in my country multiple bosses and contradictory interests," Hitti said. "If they do not come together in the interest of rescuing the Lebanese people, God forbid, the ship will sink with everyone on it." He also had differences with Diab and was frustrated at being sidelined, sources close to the ministry told Reuters. Diab appeared to criticize France's foreign minister for tying aid to reforms and a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when visiting Beirut last month.

The Daily Star –– BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti plans to resign from his position over perceived diminished role and government incompetence, …

By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s confirmed cases of coronavirus have reached 5,000 despite a five-day government lockdown that started last Thursday, as one doctor warned that the health system was “beyond its capacity.” The Ministry of Health recorded 175 cases on Saturday evening, 155 of whom are residents while 20 were people who had returned from abroad. Two deaths were recorded, raising the death toll to 61. No new recoveries have been recorded, and the total number of people who have recovered from coronavirus remains at 1,761. The disease spread during Eid Al-Adha at the weekend, reaching villages and towns where no cases had been previously recorded.

The Internal Security Forces announced in a communiqué that, on July 31 and Aug. 1, they drew up 555 reports against violators of social distancing and preventive measures. A fresh five-day lockdown is due to start this Thursday. “Intensive care rooms at Rafik Hariri University Hospital are now full and, if the situation remains the same during the coming days, the hospital will not be able to accommodate the cases requiring intensive care,” Dr. Osman Itani, a pulmonologist and intensive care specialist, told Arab News. He described the situation as “difficult,” adding: “The number of cases currently exceeds 100 per day, and this is a big problem that cannot be addressed by the health system as it is beyond its capacity. There is a need to restructure hospitals, bearing in mind that hospitals are currently not receiving positive cases, but rather patients just showing symptoms.”

Electricite du Liban (EDL) announced that a number of its staff had contracted COVID-19, and that these employees had come into direct contact with customers at the company’s headquarters. Imad Kreidieh, general director of Ogero Telecom, announced that 17 of Ogero’s staff had tested positive for COVID-19 and that 600 workers had taken a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital is facing an employee shortage due to COVID-19 infections. Those who have contracted the virus have also transmitted the infection to several others, according to one of the hospital’s doctors. Those with the virus have been asked to self-isolate at home.