Health Ministry sources told Al-Akhbar: The situation would have been more catastrophic had it not been for the ‘mercy’ of the shutdown …

The newspaper added that, contrary to estimates, a slight decrease in the number of daily injuries could be registered as a result of the complete shutdown, the figures resumed yesterday, with the Ministry of Health announcing in the evening the record of 1,859 cases (13 of they are foreigners), while 24 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours (Total deaths reached 974). These numbers arrive on the eve of the 13th day of the shutdown, which ends next Tuesday, so does this mean that the shutdown did not achieve its desired objectives, and was “unnecessary”, or do these numbers just evidence that the shutdown saved the country from a worst scenario? Sources of the Ministry of Health.
In a quick inventory of official figures, the newspaper continued, there were around 13,000 recoveries from the start of the shutdown until yesterday night. In just 12 days, 17,890 new infections were recorded and 168 people died, bringing the death rate in Lebanon to 139 people per million residents. According to figures for the past 14 days, the rate of exposure of Lebanese residents to the virus reached 403 people per 100,000 residents.
Some anti-blockage organizations (especially merchants) raise these figures as evidence of the ineffectiveness of the confinement, the inevitability of living with the worsening epidemiological reality, and perhaps achieving “herd immunity” until the promised vaccine arrives, while sources of the Ministry of Health rely on the same figures to confirm that the situation would have been even more catastrophic had it not been for the “mercy” of the closure.

In addition, sources from the Ministry of Health confirmed to the newspaper Al-Akhbar that “the gradual reopening this time will be accompanied by decisive measures in the sectors so that those responsible for them adhere to preventive measures under threat of closure.” Well, “the bet after the closure will be for the neighbors before the exclusion of the option to return to a fifth closure due to the economic crisis.”

The sources concluded that “whoever wants to survive and not be infected must protect themselves, because the state currently has no choice but to wait for the vaccine and increase the number of beds.”