Lebanon confirmed 598 new coronavirus cases and six deaths Wednesday, bringing the total number of registered cases in the country to 18,365.
Of the new cases, 588 were detected among the local population and 10 among travelers from abroad. There have been a total number of 177 deaths in country due to coronavirus complications since Feb. 21.
Cases were detected among 9,081 PCR tests administered in the last 24 hours, bringing the positivity rate to 7.7 percent.
Lebanon’s coronavirus cases have seen an alarming surge over the last month, coinciding with the catastrophic Beirut Port explosion which has left at least 300,000 people homeless. Thousands of injuries from the blast further overwhelmed the already strained health care system.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced in a news conference Tuesday night that France would be donating 7 million euros to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which has treated the majority of coronavirus cases in the country
