A very severe tightening of a comprehensive shutdown … and a war of exceptions by the Corona committees

Hours before the emergency meeting called by President Michel Aoun of the Supreme Defense Council in the Baabda Palace, the Secretary General of the Council and the head of the Ministerial Committee to Combat Coronavirus, Major General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, confirmed that “the health situation in Lebanon is extremely dangerous and the hospitals are crowded with patients and infected with the coronavirus.” In a televised interview, Al-Asmar noted that “the Corona committee makes recommendations to the acting prime minister, Hassan Diab, and the decision is not made by the committee, and today we met for more than 5 hours and discussed all the issues, problems and risks. We made recommendations based on international standards, and at each closing and reopening we are making very well thought out plans. “

90% success
Al-Asmar said the latest plan adopted by the committee, “according to the University of Oxford, will be 90% successful if committed, to remedy the crisis. Regarding the new recommendations, Al-Asmar pointed out that “we seek through them a higher percentage than expected”, adding that “the committee’s decisions are very well thought out, it meets more than once a week, and they participate in it. most sectors of the country. ” He noted that “the recommendations were delivered to the presidency of the government, and tomorrow morning the ministerial commission will meet and submit them to the Supreme Defense Council. We affirm that the recommendations that we have raised in them are a very hard stress and the lesson is implement those decisions. “

Strong recommendations
According to the atmosphere that emerged from today’s meeting of the commission, among the recommendations that were raised, the country will be completely closed for a week from the middle of next week, and the exceptions that have been approved in various sectors will be canceled. , including the supermarket, provided that citizens are given a period of days for purchases and supplies of one week or ten days. Since closing. In addition, a single position was not reached with regard to the closure of the airport and border crossings, while the elimination of exceptions also included the industrial sector and the media, with the exception of ovens, pharmacies and gas stations.

Notification exception
And Interim Government Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad was quick to contact Interior Minister Muhammad Fahmy to confirm that media professionals are excluded from curfew every day, including Sundays, at starting today, Sunday, January 10, 2021, as stipulated in the Cabinet circular. . Abdel Samad noted that he had received many calls to inquire about the matter and that some of the checkpoints of the Internal Security Forces had written seizure records against various media professionals, in contradiction to the aforementioned circular. He said in a radio interview that “the media cannot be prevented from wandering and not being excluded because it contributes to spreading awareness and its great mission in this field and its work parallel to the work of the medical corps.”

Warnings from medical committees