Fines for tampering with electricity meter range between SR5000 and SR100000 New amendments made in Electricity Law    Saudi Arabia deports 8,051 illegal residents in a week    Saudi Arabia is among world's top donors with assistance worth SR528 billion    GCC – Japan negotiations make progress in sealing free trade agreement    Inzaghi hails Al Hilal's fearless Club World Cup run    UNRWA calls for urgent fuel delivery to Gaza to prevent shutdown of basic services    Syria rules out foreign borrowing as central bank hails post-Assad recovery    Pakistan army kills 30 militants in cross-border clash near Afghanistan    State of emergency declared in Crete after wildfire devastates Ierapetra    OPEC+ further accelerates oil output hike by 548,000 bpd in August    Football world mourns Diogo Jota and brother André Silva at funeral in Portugal    Al Hilal exit Club World Cup after narrow defeat to Fluminense    Saudi Arabia tops global ICT Development Index for 2025    Hotel occupancy in Saudi Arabia rises to 63% as tourism workforce tops 983,000 in Q1 2025    Alkhorayef Commercial Company partners with XSQUARE Technologies to elevate logistics automation in Saudi Arabia    Portugal and Liverpool FC winger Diogo Jota dies in car accident in Spain    Michael Madsen, actor of 'Kill Bill' and 'Reservoir Dogs' fame, dead at 67    BTS are back: K-pop band confirm new album and tour    Michelin Guide launches in Saudi Arabia with phased rollout in 2025    'How fragile we are': Roskilde Festival tragedy remembered 25 years on    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Lebanon cases spike as returning expatriates flout quarantine rules
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 18 - 05 - 2020

SOME of the newly detected coronavirus cases in Lebanon are of individuals who entered the country on the repatriation flights, and some returning expats have flouted the requirement to quarantine, raising fears that the returns could threaten progress made in controlling the virus.
Beirut's airport remains closed to commercial flights until at least June 8 amid the coronavirus outbreak. But several repatriation flights have continued to arrive, bringing Lebanese expats home from locations around the world.
Lebanon was in the process of gradually lifting its lockdown procedures before a spike in cases prompted a new four-day lockdown beginning Wednesday night.
On May 6, the Ministry of Public Health reported that 25 expats returning on a flight from Nigeria had tested positive for the virus, but smaller numbers of positive cases have surfaced among returning expats nearly every day. On Saturday, the health ministry reported 11 new positive tests, of which six were among expats.
And in a notice issued earlier this week, Mount Lebanon Governor Judge Mohammad Al-Makkawi announced that five recently returned expats – who had come from Warsaw, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Tehran, and Cameroon respectively – were wanted for arrest after they had allegedly given false contact information to authorities in an attempt to elude follow-up monitoring meant to ensure that they were quarantined at home.
The government's handling of the expat's return has drawn criticism, particularly after the new lockdown, with some asserting that mishandling of the repatriation was threatening to undo the progress made on controlling the spread of the virus.
Former MP Ismail Sukkariyeh, a gastroenterologist, issued a statement questioning the government's handling of the repatriation, and particularly the failure to ensure that the returnees adhere to quarantine measures.
"Why did the government not put its hand on vacant institutions, such as hotels and public buildings, to quarantine the arrivals in them?" Sukkariyeh asked. "Why aren't government hospitals placed at the disposal of conducting the quarantine, and not only performing a laboratory test that is mistaken 30 percent of the time?"
About 11,300 Lebanese are expected to return on repatriation flights during the current phase, which began May 11 and ends May 24. Many of the returnees are university students who got stuck abroad when the Beirut airport closed on March 18.
For expats returning from countries where COVID-19 testing is available, authorities have been requiring them to show a negative test result taken within three days before their departure before they can board a repatriation flight. Those with positive test results are not allowed to board.
However, those returning from countries that do not have reliable testing capacity are tested upon arrival. All returning expats are ordered to quarantine, but unlike in some other countries that have quarantined returning travelers in hotels, Lebanon has ordered the expats to self-quarantine at home.
A spokesman for the health ministry did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, the minister urged returnees to take seriously "the necessity of compulsory home quarantine and not to socialize even with their families or neighborhoods, as this poses a challenge to preserving the progress made in the face of the epidemic."
Firass Abiad, head of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the government institution that has been at the forefront of the coronavirus response in Lebanon, told Al Arabiya English that halting repatriation flights altogether "is not really an option for a lot of humanitarian social reasons, and at the end of the day, these are people coming back to their country, so you cannot just lock them out indefinitely."
However, Abiad said he believes additional precautions could be taken.
Returning travelers who test positive, even if they are asymptomatic, "need to come into the hospital until we have a very clear assessment, which is both a medical assessment and a social assessment to make sure they can go back, that it's safe for them and for the society at large to be at a quarantine in their homes," he said.
While other countries have been allowing asymptomatic patients to quarantine at home, Abiad said, "We have to take advantage that we do not have a lot of cases in Lebanon, and this allows us to exert more control. We don't have to take shortcuts like some countries because they have so many positive cases they're overwhelmed."
Abiad noted that some of the recent case clusters that had driven the new four-day lockdown did not appear to be related to returning expats, including a cluster of cases among soldiers at a military court. He added that citizens also need to take responsibility for preventing spread of the virus.
"There are two sides to this conversation," he said. "There is the conversation of the measures that the government is taking, but then there is the other side, which is the behavior and conduct of the population. I think that the more we conduct ourselves in a responsible manner, the easier it will become for the government to ease its measures." -- Al Arabiya English


Clic here to read the story from its source.