After she flew to Lebanon in 2017 to work as a maid for a family of eight, Birtukan Mekuanint managed to call her own relatives in Ethiopia only a handful of times.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea announced on Wednesday his boycott of Thursday’s national dialogue meeting in Baabda.

The third meeting of the ministerial crisis cell tasked with following up on financial issues convened on Wednesday and was chaired by Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, the National News Agency reported.

Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad apologized to the Lebanese people on Wednesday for an economic crisis that pushed many into poverty, saying that “the people are hungry and prices are soaring.”

The governmental Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced in a statement on Wednesday the first infant death from Covid-19 in Lebanon who suffered from "congenital heart defects."

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Tuesday described a lawsuit filed against anti-Hizbullah Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amin as “a blatant attack on the dignity of the Lebanese.”

“It represents a crime, a blatant attack on the dignity of the Lebanese and contempt for their intelligence and patriotism,” Hariri said in a tweet.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker on Tuesday dismissed Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest anti-U.S. accusations and said sanctions related to Hizbullah’s “activities” will be implemented in Lebanon.

Describing Nasrallah’s allegations as fictitious and baseless, Schenker denied in an interview with al-Hadeel magazine that Washington is preventing the entry of dollars into Lebanon and said the rise in the dollar exchange rate in the country has many other reasons.

Lebanon's economic crisis has led to a collapse of the local currency and purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty as exemplified by near-empty fridges in many households.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel on Tuesday announced that he will boycott the Baabda national meeting, urging dialogue over the country’s “real problems.”

“We call on President Michel Aoun to put the essential issues on the table. We are advocates of dialogue and peace and we want the country to be civilized,” Gemayel said at a press conference.

Nineteen more COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Lebanon on Tuesday, which raises the overall tally to 1,622.

Twelve of the cases were recorded among residents and seven among expats repatriated from Ivory Coast, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Nigeria and the Central African Republic, the Health Ministry said.