By AFP — Lebanon awaits the decision of the ministerial committee concerned with following up on the coronavirus file, with the country ending 2020 and setting a record of more than 3,000 daily cases for the first time since the outbreak of the virus in February 21, media reports said Saturday. The Prime Minister’s Public Health Adviser, Petra Khoury, said the number of coronavirus cases will “surpass all expectations,” necessitating “quick and drastic” decisions in 2021 to control the spread and face the challenges. Khoury said Lebanon is on the verge of a difficult phase in January and February, pointing to a significant shortage of ICU hospital beds for coronavirus patients. She said the “problem is very complex and Lebanon needs a change in the behavior of citizens,” explaining “the cruelty of the stage during the onset of winter season where people gather in indoor spaces, in addition to the start of the flu season.”

Authorities are expected to impose a new total lockdown in Lebanon after registering a record high of coronavirus cases after the Christmas and New Year Eve festivities. Lebanon recorded 2,385 new cases on Friday and 11 deaths. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab had earlier said that Lebanon tends to go for a lockdown after the holidays if the cases continue to rise. They have a total of 850 beds, including 300 in intensive care units, Haroun said. “Patients are now waiting in line … waiting for a bed to be free,” he told AFP news agency. “Over the past three weeks, the occupancy rate of intensive care units has increased by 10 percent,” pushing the occupancy of hospital beds in Beirut to over 90 percent of capacity. “We have been asked by several hospitals not to transfer patients to them,” Lebanese Red Cross president Georges Kettaneh told AFP.The total number of coronavirus cases in Lebanon reached 181,500, and 1400 deaths since the first cases was detected in February.