Saudi Arabia closed off air and sea travel to nine countries, including Lebanon, affected by the new coronavirus Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri described as “positive” the announcement of PM Hassan Diab late last week, but noted that he should have dwelt more on the problematic issue of electricity, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

Lebanon on Sunday confirmed four new coronavirus cases, taking the overall tally to 32, according to the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital.

A statement issued by the hospital said it received 100 cases at its coronavirus section over the past 24 hours.

Lebanon, shaken by street protests and economic crisis and now set to default on its Eurobond debt, has pledged reforms that will serve as a litmus test for its new government.

"The real question is: will politicians do what's necessary to fix the problem?" asked Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Sunday encouraged creditors to cooperate with the Lebanese government after the country announced that it will default on a Eurobond debt for the first time in its history amid a severe financial and economic crisis.

“Honest statement of PM Hassan Diab about the failure of the previous economic model opens the way out of the crisis,” Kubis said in a tweet.

Unknown assailants opened fire at dawn Sunday at the headquarters of the Kataeb Party in Beirut’s Saifi area, hitting it with six gunshots, the party said.

In a statement, Kataeb said the attackers used machineguns, calling on the state and its security agencies to “unveil the identity of the assailants and instigators.”

U.N. Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Sunday called on Lebanon to ensure that women are “more involved” in the country’s political life, in a statement marking International Women’s Day.

“Lebanon is encouraged to take measures to ensure women are more involved and allowed to actively take part in the realization of change and in shaping the image of their country’s future through greater inclusion and participation in decision-making processes,” Kubis said in his statement.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against “tampering with Lebanon’s fate,” as he stressed that the church “will not allow its downfall.”

“It is a must to remind that the free financial and economic system – of which the banking sector is a key part and in which the Lebanese stash their lifelong savings – is a pillar of the pillars of the Lebanese entity which was established by the venerable patriarch Elias Hoayek 100 years ago,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

A senior Hizbullah official announced Sunday that his party “backs the government in its decision related to the Eurobonds,” urging the people and all political forces to “show solidarity with it and support its stance.”

Everyone should “cooperate with it so that it takes its decisions bravely, away from intimidation and blackmail,” the deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, Sheikh Ali Daamoush, said.

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel has criticized a speech delivered by Prime Minister Hassan Diab in which he announced that Lebanon will default on its March 9 Eurobond debt.

“No legal measures were announced, no practical and instant reforms were announced, no economic and social steps for rescue were announced and no containment measures were announced to confront the repercussions from the default decision,” Gemayel lamented in a tweet.