by Nick Newsom — The Daily Star — BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities said Monday they would introduce a new zonal approach to containing coronavirus as the number of cases climbed ever higher, with 1,018 people confirmed to have caught the disease within the past 24 hours and four more deaths. Just one of the people who caught the virus during that period had come from abroad. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s media office said the ministerial committee to follow up on coronavirus agreed on introducing the “zonal system,” also known as the “traffic light system,” as a way to determine the containment measures to be implemented in different areas. White areas with fewer than five total cases are considered “very low risk,” and mask wearing and social distancing are recommended, according to a table based on the US Department of Health’s system that was published by Diab’s media office. “Low risk” or green areas have fewer than four cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. Testing of contacts, contract tracing and isolation are additional measures to be taken in these zones.

Yellow areas where there are between four to eight new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days are considered “moderate risk.” Intensive testing and contact tracing efforts are to be taken in those areas and not just targeted at contacts of cases. There will be a curfew after 7 p.m. In red areas where there is “high risk,” or more than eight cases per 100,000 people over 14 days, residents will be required to stay at home and there will be a local lockdown. It was unclear if travel restrictions would be applied between the zones, as is the case in other places where this “traffic light” color-coding system is implemented, such as the European Union. A soon to be launched digital platform run by Cabinet’s Disaster Risk Management center will publish data on each area’s classification, the statement from Diab’s media office said. Implementation will be carried out in collaboration with the Health and Interior ministries. Public health expert Sara Chang told The Daily Star that she “commends continued efforts to address the spread of COVID-19” but that she approached the proposal “with concern and caution.”

Key among her concerns were: the limited appetite for additional containment measures among the public; the high levels of required “time, coordination and human resources among security forces to regulate movement;” and the varying capacity of the health system to provide the necessary levels of testing, contact tracing and isolation beds in each zone. “Although zoned approaches have had some success in other parts of the world, each country has a different context and different considerations. It is unclear how long a zoned approach would need to be implemented for the entire country to become ‘green,’” she said. “Success relies on the ability and willingness of businesses and community members in each zone to comply. If there are no additional supports provided for businesses and community members to weather lockdowns, such as food and financial assistance, it seems a worsening of poverty and hunger may be likely,” she added. Poverty is already increasing as Lebanon goes through its worst ever financial crisis and the local currency sheds value. Before the crisis hit, already 22 percent of the population lived in “extreme poverty” and 45 percent lived under the “upper poverty line,” according to the World Bank.

Lebanon’s only national social assistance program, the National Poverty Targeting Program, currently only reaches 25 percent, or 43,000 households, of those considered extremely poor. The introduction of the “traffic light” system comes as Lebanon witnesses an unrelenting surge in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. Local test positivity in September currently stands at 8.5 percent. It was 7.19 percent in August and 2.1 percent in July. A total of 37,258 people have now tested positive for COVID-19 in Lebanon since February and 351 have died. Rising hospitalizations and ICU admissions are also a growing concern for the authorities. There were 198 people in intensive care Monday – up 104 percent on the start of the month and 518 percent on the start of August, when just 32 people were occupying ICU beds. More cases were also confirmed in Lebanon’s overcrowded detention facilities Monday, with the Internal Security Forces saying in a statement that a total of 614 inmates had so far tested positive for COVID-19. It said that all 556 inmates in Zahle prison have been tested, yielding 237 cases and a positivity rate of 42.6 percent. Two inmates from the prison are currently in hospital. In Lebanon’s main prison, Roumieh, 1,091 tests have been conducted to date, of which have 377 come back positive and 17 are still pending. Test positivity stands at 35 percent and five prisoners are currently in hospital for treatment.

Growing public pressure to reduce overcrowding in Lebanon’s prisons has put a general amnesty law back on the political agenda, and lawmakers are set to discuss a proposed amnesty at a Parliamentary legislative session that runs Wednesday to Thursday. Legal Agenda co-founder Nizar Saghieh told The Daily Star the draft law is the same one that MPs discussed and rejected at Parliament’s June legislative session. The main sticking points relate to whether or not to pardon inmates under the age of 65 who were convicted on terrorism-related charges; whether inmates convicted of more than one drug related crime should be included; and if it should include those who fled to Israel after occupying Israeli troops withdrew in 2000. The deadly disease has meanwhile entered the presidential palace. A spokesperson told The Daily Star Monday that a total of 10 staff members at the palace tested positive over the weekend. President Michel Aoun’s PCR results came back negative and none of the infected 10 have so far needed to go to hospital, the spokesperson said. All are currently in self-isolation. Aoun’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil, who also heads up the Free Patriotic Movement, tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday.