BEIRUT: A Lebanese man died on Tuesday from the novel coronavirus, a health ministry official said, marking the country’s first recorded death from an epidemic that has infected 41 people nationwide.
The 56-year-old had been receiving treatment at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri state hospital, the ministry official said, adding that he had recently returned from Egypt, where coronavirus infections have also been detected.
Lebanon, already hit by economic collapse and anti-government protests, is now grappling with an outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 virus — its latest in a long list of crises.
Health Minister Hamad Hassan said last week that the country has moved beyond the phase of “containment” and was bracing for a more serious outbreak.
Schools, universities, cafes, pubs and other public places have since been ordered shut over fears of the virus.
Sport tournaments have been postponed and cultural events cancelled.
According to the health minister, the origins of Lebanon’s cases have mostly been traced to other countries.
Lebanon has said it would deny entry to non-resident foreigners arriving from China, South Korea, Iran and Italy, which are among the hardest hit by the epidemic.
But domestic concern is still high amid fears that Lebanon is not equipped to face a mass outbreak.
With a grinding liquidity crunch and dwindling foreign reserves, Lebanon has struggled to secure the dollars needed for medical imports even before coronavirus arrived.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on Saturday that the country would suspend payment on Eurobonds.
IRAN INFECTIONS
Meanwhile, Iran on Tuesday reported 54 new deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day toll since the start of the country’s outbreak.
The latest deaths bring the number of those killed by the virus in the Islamic republic to 291, the health ministry’s spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised conference.
He added that 881 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total number of people infected to an official 8,042.
But “2,731 people, which is about 10 times the number of dear countrymen we’ve lost, have recovered and been discharged from hospitals,” Jahanpour said.
The outbreak of the virus in Iran is one of the deadliest outside China, where the disease originated.
With 2,114 cases, the capital Tehran remains the worst-hit province.
The northern province of Mazandaran climbed to second place with 253 new cases, bringing the total there to 886, followed by 751 in Qom, the Shiite pilgrimage city south of Tehran where the country’s first cases were reported.
Mazandaran is a popular tourist spot bordering the Caspian Sea, and is particularly popular during holidays for the Iranian New Year, which this year starts on March 20.
Iran is yet to officially impose quarantines but authorities have repeatedly called on people to refrain from travelling and have resorted to closing hotels and other accommodation to discourage travel.
“As we said and expected in recent days, Mazandaran has almost reached the top of the chart” in terms of infections and is second only to Tehran, Jahanpour said.
“Our warnings against travelling to Mazandaran may be more understandable today,” he added.
Iran’s fatalities include several politicians and government officials, as well as some hospital staff.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed on Tuesday to designate hospital staff who died after contracting the virus as “martyrs”, following a suggestion by the health minister, according to the official IRNA news agency.
In the Islamic republic, the families of those designated martyrs usually receive financial aid and other benefits from the state.
The supreme leader also cancelled his annual speech in Mashhad city to mark the Persian new year due to concerns about the virus outbreak and health authorities’ calls “to avoid gatherings and travel”. — AFP
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