by AFP — Lebanon Friday pledged to finalise a plan to restructure the country’s massive debt by the end of 2020, just weeks after its first default in history. Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni promised “a full restructuring of the government debt –- both Lebanese pound and dollar denominated debt” as part of a wider economic recovery plan. “Our aim is to finalise this ambitious turnaround agenda before year-end 2020,” he said during a presentation to investors by webcast. Describing the Lebanese economic model as “broken”, he also pledged banking sector and fiscal reforms. One of the most indebted countries in the world, Lebanon is burdened by a public debt equivalent to more than 170 percent of GDP. On Monday, the finance ministry said it would discontinue payments on all of its outstanding dollar-denominated Eurobonds. This came after its first default in history on a $1.2 billion Eurobond originally due on March 9. The country is embroiled in one of its worst economic crises since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In a bid to halt the spread of the illness, the government has ordered a lockdown until April 12 and ordered all non-essential businesses to close.

by middleeastmonitor.com — Lebanese security forces cleared away a protest camp in central Beirut on Saturday and reopened roads blocked by demonstrators since protests against the governing elite started in October, Reuters reports. The camp centred around Martyrs Square had mostly fallen dormant in recent months as the protests waned. Lebanon this week tightened measures […]

by middleeastmonitor.com — The government in Lebanon is preparing to fly citizens stranded abroad by the coronavirus pandemic back to Beirut, Minister of Information Manal Abdul Samad said on Thursday. “Those Lebanese abroad who want to return to Lebanon after 12 April must fill in forms and a mechanism will be devised before 30 March to facilitate bank transfers to them,” she explained. “They should communicate with our embassies to report their situation and needs.” Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti confirmed the news in an interview with local channel MTV, noting that no Lebanese citizen will be allowed to return before they are tested for Covid-19 and it is confirmed that they do not have or carry the disease. “Any infected person can be an unexploded bomb for those returning on the same flight,” he explained. Lebanese students overseas and in financial difficulties will also be eligible to apply for money transfers from the government, added Hitti.

Lebanese banks have been enforcing harsh capital controls on accounts since October, only allowing depositors to withdraw as little as $100 per week as the country faces its worst economic and financial crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990. Hitti noted that students whose families are unable to support them financially because of the current situation will be supported by the government. Lebanon has also extended the state of “general mobilisation” until 12 April and added new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

by Naharnet — Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad on Thursday explained what the government intends to do regarding the Lebanese citizens who want to return to their country due to the global coronavirus crisis. “The Lebanese abroad who want to return to Lebanon after April 12 must fill in forms and a mechanism will be devised before March 30 to facilitate bank transfers to them,” Abdul Samad said in remarks reported by MTV. They should “communicate with the embassies to report their situation and needs,” Abdul Samad added.

 by globalnewshut.com — Germaine K. Curran —PARIS: France’s Lebanese neighborhood speak about confinement throughout the pandemic and the place they might quite be France is dwelling to about 250,000 Lebanese — college students, entrepreneurs, businessmen, bankers, architects, medical doctors, surgeons, restaurateurs, hoteliers, nurses and orderlies. Arab Information requested a variety of them concerning the lockdown in France and whether or not they felt safer in France than in Lebanon. Most of these interviewed felt that the French state was extra involved with the well being and well-being of its residents and extra prepared to compensate firms for losses incurred than the Lebanese state, which is overwhelmed with chapter and money owed and is unable to make sure even the bottom requirements of residing for its residents.

Ziad Asseily, co-owner of the Liza eating places in Paris and Beirut along with his spouse Liza, is now confined to dwelling in Paris. “I used to be in Beirut and I went again to Paris to be with my spouse Liza and my daughter simply earlier than the closure of Beirut airport. I might say that I really feel safer in Paris than in Beirut for the struggle in opposition to coronavirus as a result of in France now we have a complete authorities that manages the state of affairs. In Lebanon, folks should depend on themselves to face this disaster,” he stated. “Throughout my keep in Lebanon, I met some mates who took the initiative to abide by the internationally imposed prevention measures lengthy earlier than the Lebanese authorities imposed them. Residents resorted to dwelling confinement even earlier than the federal government determined to droop worldwide flights. They understood that it was the appropriate step to take, to isolate oneself.”

by Naharnet — A Lebanese coronavirus patient died on Wednesday as four others recovered, the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced. The fatality raises the country’s death toll from the pandemic to six. Twenty patients have recovered until the moment according to a statement issued by RHUH. All the other patients at the hospital are […]

by arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanese MP Neemat Frem revealed a ventilator prototype on Wednesday, two weeks after launching an initiative to build one with a group of specialized engineers and doctors. Frem said: “The machine, which will benefit the country’s intensive care units, was built according to high specifications and accurate, advanced and versatile technologies.” […]

(MENAFN – Asia Times) TRIPOLI — On the eve of a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, a group of men blocked off the modern gates of Tripoli, the stretch of highway leading to Lebanon’s second-largest city. It was March 17, and the country’s neglected northern metropolis, which looks out to the Mediterranean and borders Syria, still had not recorded any novel coronavirus cases. The impoverished protesters were incensed the government was threatening their livelihoods with a nationwide lockdown. ‘Someone came to me asking for 1,000 LBP (50 cents) because he can’t even buy bread for his kids. I had a package, so I gave it to him and kept three slices for my own kids. This is where we’re at!? Isn’t it shameful!’ one man cried out in a video filmed on a mobile phone. ‘I swear to God, I saw a guy sell his cooking gas canister to buy milk for his kids!’ A young man, a struggling taxi driver in the city, lambasted the government for waiting a month after the first Covid-19 case was flagged to cut off air travel. ‘If they were smart, they would have shut down the airport from the beginning, because it came from the airport, not the land border,’ he said.

Lebanon’s first cases of coronavirus were citizens flying back from Shiite religious pilgrimages to Iran, with the first positive test result announced February 21. At the time, Iran was not yet a global epicenter for Covid-19 – with less than two dozen cases – but in the three-and-a-half weeks that followed, alarm grew over daily flights from Qom and other Iranian cities. Residents of Tripoli, with its population overwhelmingly Sunni, appeared initially more insulated, but the Beirut-based outbreak has since made its way up the coast and to the mountainous districts above the city. Other cases later arrived via Egypt. On Tuesday, the confirmed cases had risen above 300. ‘The government didn’t act from the beginning. Now they want to fix it and be smart. So they put us in this health lockdown,’ said the taxi driver. ‘But if you want to do a lockdown, you need to give people the means to survive it. Tripoli isn’t Beirut, we’re living day by day.’ ‘They’re saying it’s going to be a 15-day shutdown,’ another man chimed in. ‘How are people supposed to eat if their shops are closed and they don’t have work?’

By Emily Lewis BEIRUT saudigazette.com.sa — Lebanon’s military and security forces deployed across the country Sunday after the government announced a clampdown on those not complying with orders aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Army helicopters toured the skies, calling on residents through loudspeakers not to venture out “in the interests of your own safety,” while soldiers set up roadblocks and carried out foot patrols on the streets. The Internal Security Forces said its members had begun taking “stricter measures” to ensure the public was following government orders to stay in their homes except in cases of “extreme necessity.” Those who fail to do so could be met with a fine and imprisonment of up to 3 years.

The ramping up of military and security presence to curb the COVID-19 coronavirus came in response to failure to heed official orders to stay inside, Interior Minister Mohamad Fahmi said. There were 248 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Health Ministry. Four people have died from the virus. “The number of people infected with the virus has increased dramatically, and we have moved beyond the stage of containment,” Fahmi said in a televised speech, in which he detailed the measures first announced by Prime Minister Hassan Diab a day earlier. “Any violation that poses a threat to public safety will be suppressed,” Fahmi added. All of the country’s security agencies will coordinate together with municipal authorities to ensure compliance with the rules. People will be able to buy essential goods such as food and medicine, but will be prevented from gathering in groups or spending time outside without a good reason, the minister said.

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: Lebanon remains open to naval and air shipping despite interruptions from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Meanwhile, health and security authorities are struggling to prevent the virus from spinning out of control. On Monday, there was a slight increase in the number of new cases, with the Ministry of Health announcing that the total number of infections was 256 cases. Lebanese Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Hassan said: “80 of 160 beds are vacant in Rafik Hariri University Hospital, designated to receive cases of infection by the coronavirus.” Lebanese lawmaker Michel Moawad announced on Monday that the number of infections has increased in the northern district of Zgharta and that “a total lockdown will be imposed on the region.”

Lebanese people are still confining themselves to their homes under the monitoring of the army and security forces, which were put in charge of reporting any violation of the lockdown. Monday saw the first recorded case among UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) forces, with one of its soldiers contracting the virus. He was confined at the UNIFIL hospital in Naqoura. Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL spokesperson, said that all precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the virus, adding that the soldier was on leave and returned on March 15, and that he was immediately quarantined. Four other soldiers who were in direct contact with the infected soldier were put in confinement. Tests were done on all four, with three testing negative. UNIFIL is still waiting for the result of the fourth soldier.

A meeting was held on Monday in the Port of Beirut to decide measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The port management declared its commitment to providing masks and other protection materials for visitors. Hassan Koraytem, managing director of the Port of Beirut, said: “The port building, offices and entrances controlled by the army, general security, customs and state security will all be sterilized.” He added that “a circular will be issued to all shipping and goods clearing companies not to deploy personnel who are more vulnerable to the disease than others, especially people above 60 with chronic diseases.” On Monday, there was a slight increase in the number of new cases.

by Dana Halawi BEIRUT,(Xinhua) — Lebanese engineers and medical experts are developing local ventilator prototype amid the spread of COVID-19. Hussein Al Haj Hassan, a Lebanese telecom and network engineer, initiates the ventilator prototype project with Hisham Issa, an electrical engineer and Hussein Hamdan, a mechanical engineer. “We are happy to see that our initiative has made a huge impact not only on the personal level but also on the corporate level where we have seen many factories and companies starting to work on such prototypes, which will help Lebanon to get prepared in case the number of patients increase,” Al Haj Hassan said, adding that the product is a critical medical device which needs time to be produced.

The engineer said his team, consisting of 300 people, aims to meet basic requirements with its product by gathering information from medical doctors. Ventilators are machines that help people breathe when they can’t breathe on their own. The machine works by delivering air through a tube in the patient’s windpipe into the lungs. “What we worry about for now are technical challenges. When we succeed with the prototype we will go to the funding phase,” the young engineer said. He noted that that the Industry Ministry showed high interest in and great support for the project. Lebanese officials have voiced their concerns about the shortage in the needed materials to fight against COVID-19 including ventilators, masks and disinfectants. According to the Health Ministry, there exists a total of 1,185 ventilators in Lebanon with 750 of them functionable while the rest need maintenance. Among the 750 functionable ventilators, 500 are currently in use while the rest are stored for COVID-19 emergency cases. Meanwhile, the Association of Lebanese Banks recently allocated six million U.S. dollars for the import of 120 new ventilators. Lebanon’s number of COVID-19 infections has reached 248 so far. Enditem