Lebanon orders two-week shutdown after COVID-19 surge

Lebanon’s interior ministry ordered businesses across the country to shut down for two weeks and enforced an overnight curfew from Friday after a rise in coronavirus infections.

Tuesday’s decision allows for clearing rubble, making repairs and giving out aid in neighbourhoods demolished by the Aug. 4 blast in Beirut. The airport will remain open, with travelers having to take a PCR test before boarding.

Officials have urged precaution. But after the blast uprooted nearly a quarter of a million people, the risk of the virus spreading has grown, healthcare workers say.