Diab chairs meeting of Inter-ministerial Committee for Follow up of coronavirus file

Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, chaired a meeting of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Follow up of the coronavirus file. Attending the meeting were Ministers Zeina Akar, Raoul Nehme, Mohammad Fahmi, Imad Hoballah, Michel Najjar, Ramzi Musharrafieh, Hamad Hassan, and Vartine Ohanian, as well as the director general of the Lebanese Presidency, Antoine Choucair, the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Judge Mahmoud Makie, the Secretary General of the Higher Defense Council, Major-General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, and PM’s Advisors, Khodor Taleb and Petra Khoury.

After the meeting, Minister Hassan delivered the following statement: “The Inter-ministerial Committee convened under the chairmanship of Premier Diab, to assess the nationwide lockdown. The Ministry of Health made a presentation of the tests it had conducted at all levels; the results clearly show that we are still at the 15 percent rate of positive cases, which means that the rate remained unchanged. We managed to stabilize this number without succeeding to reach the 12 percent target rate. In terms of readiness, 60 additional beds were introduced to government hospitals and 34 to private hospitals, which is still below the required level and falls short of the Ministry of Public Health’s ambitions. We will announce the end of lockdown plan at a meeting that will be held on Sunday, to put in place a plan that is in line with the Lebanese reality, so as to gradually end the lockdown; the plan will be assessed on a weekly basis, and it will feature some tipping points to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The plan presented by the technical committee should contend with the Lebanese reality and not implement a European or American plan in Lebanon. Therefore, we asked to postpone this plan until next Sunday in order to rearrange our priorities.”

Minister of Economy Then Minister Raoul Nehme stated: “We want to reopen the country, including all sectors, for the economy cannot tolerate shutdown. Citizens have an obligation to help promote both health and the economy. As for the issue of the Iraqi flour stored in the Sports City stadium, an independent laboratory took the necessary samples from the bags and confirmed that the flour was fit for use. We are distributing 25 percent of the available quantity to bakeries and 75 percent to Lebanese mills to maintain the bread bundle price and quantity.”