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Inas Sherry wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:
The decision to completely shut down a number of cities and towns this morning will take effect, amid objection from some municipalities, who considered the decision unfair to them.
The one-week closure decision came after Lebanon entered the “final stage of the epidemic’s spread,” as described by Petra Khoury, the medical adviser to the prime minister in the interim government, Hassan Diab. Khoury, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, indicated that Lebanon is classified as “high risk”, as the occupancy rate of hospitals exceeded 90%, especially in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as well as the percentage of positive exams of the number of general exams between 9 and 10%. In the last period, it was mentioned that Lebanon had registered 250 injuries per 100,000 in the last 14 days, and this is a negative indicator.
Khoury pointed out that there is another negative indicator on the Corona issue, which is that “the number of deaths from the virus has doubled at a faster rate than the global one.” Faced with this situation, the Ministry of the Interior, based on the recommendations of the Corona government committee, decided to close 111 towns, most of which were concentrated in Mount Lebanon and the North, instead of closing the country entirely.
Although some municipalities considered that the decision of the Ministry of the Interior to close the country was not justified and wanted to reconsider it, Khoury clarified that the choice of towns and villages “was based on a global standard adopted in countries that do not want to completely close the country.” and that it was based on “The results of a survey on the number of injured and their transfer per 100,000 people. Subsequently, the areas that were classified with (high risk level), which registered 8 cases of contagion per day, were closed for at least 14 days.
Khoury indicated that after the closing week another evaluation of the state of these municipalities and villages will be carried out, to be classified again, noting that the closure will help the Ministry of Health to track and limit the spread of the virus.
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