Lebanon: a variable school year in a partially confined country
The Beirut Corniche closed to the public on August 3, 2020 (illustrative image).
AP Photo / Hassan Ammar
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Faced for weeks with a spectacular rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, Lebanon has decided to tighten up prevention measures by closing off dozens of localities.
The process has caused great confusion because it comes into force on the first day of the school year, after seven months of school closure.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
From Monday, October 12, 170 towns and villages located in different Lebanese regions will be completely cordoned off in an attempt to slow the progression of the coronavirus pandemic.
With more than a thousand contaminations per day
, the country has more than 53,000 cases and 460 deaths, for a population of 5 million inhabitants.
Among the localities affected by the measures decreed, 80 have already been closed for a week.
All gatherings are prohibited, businesses closed, except pharmacies and bakeries, and residents invited to stay at home.
But these measures, the implementation of which is entrusted to the local authorities, are very unequally respected.
Many mayors and local elected officials denounced this decision based, according to them, on imprecise data as to the number of people infected in their localities.
The hardening of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus has caused great confusion in the country, especially since it coincides with the start of the school year on Monday.
The Ministry of Education had to issue a statement to clarify that schools located in the regions affected by the closure will not open their doors.
It will therefore be a two-speed return to partially confined Lebanon.
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Lebanon
Coronavirus
Health and medicine
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