The Health Ministry announced on Thursday 34 new cases of coronavirus, 33 of them in Lebanese expats repatriated home after the outbreak of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired the Cabinet meeting at the Grand Serail in a session dedicated to address the social and tough living conditions in the country, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Lebanon’s crippling economic and financial crisis has worsened since October 17 when nationwide protests broke out against a corrupt political class and mismanagement of resources.

A second batch of Lebanese expats returned to Lebanon from Syria through al-Masnaa border crossing on Thursday, amid reports that non-Lebanese are among the returnees.

Head of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan noted that the government's economic rescue plan and any deal with the International Monetary Fund to rescue Lebanon's stricken economy will require legislative laws, media reports said on Thursday

Israel's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that his government is demanding major changes in the way the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground and has support from the United States.

Ambassador Danny Danon told a video press briefing that Israel will insist that peacekeepers have access to all sites, that they have freedom of movement and that any time they are being blocked the U.N. Security Council must be immediately informed.

The American University of Beirut, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the Middle East, has become the latest institution in Lebanon to announce it is facing a financial crisis due to what it said is a "confluence of calamities" starting with the collapse of the Lebanese economy and compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

It said staff would endure significant pay reductions and that steps under consideration include furloughs as well as the closure of some programs and departments.

Twenty-five of the Lebanese expats who arrived on the latest evacuation flight from Nigeria have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The participants in Wednesday's meeting in Baabda between President Michel Aoun and parliamentary leaders said the sacrifices required to implement the government's long-awaited financial and economic reform plan remain less costly than "complete economic and financial collapse."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday attended President Michel Aoun's Baabda talks with parliamentary leaders but stressed that the LF “remains at the heart of the opposition.”

The Health Ministry announced nine new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, seven of them in Lebanese repatriated from Sierra Leone, as the country prepares to receive five more flights repatriating expats from Oman, Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt, Paris, Monrovia.