Lebanon Registers 59 Coronavirus Deaths, 3,125 Cases

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon Friday registered 59 coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours in addition to new 3,125 cases.

The cases were detected among 14,494 PCR tests, a Health Ministry report said. The positivity rate of the tests in the last two weeks stood at 22.4 percent.

Among the newly recorded cases, only five were detected among travelers arriving in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry report, with the total number of cases since the virus was detected in the country in late February rising to 296,282.

The Health Ministry said 2,400 patients were in hospital for COVID-19, with 951 in ICUs and 326 on ventilators.

Lebanon witnessed a surge in daily virus deaths last week which has continued into this week, with a then-new record of 67 deaths registered Wednesday. The overall number of coronavirus-related deaths since February stands at 2,680.

A little over a week is left for the current total lockdown with a full curfew to come to an end. While daily cases have started to decrease, death rates remain high, and so is the testing positivity rate. Experts suggest that fatality rates don't decrease in parallel with daily cases as they lag behind a few weeks.

The lockdown is expected to be lifted on Feb. 8, barring any extensions. Meanwhile, the first coronavirus vaccine shipment is also expected in the first half of February, containing around 50,000 jabs of the Pfizer vaccine.