State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Tuesday started hearing the testimonies of the legal counsels, owners and chairmen of Lebanon’s banks over the controversial capital flight that coincided with the intensification of Lebanon's financial and monetary crisis.

The National News Agency said a statement will be issued at the end of the hearing sessions.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday said the government must devise a plan to restructure debt, plans to restructure banks and the central bank and others for financial and administrative reform as well as economic and social affairs.

He said the plans must be laid out “in parallel with the negotiations with the Eurobond holders.”

Credit ratings agency Moody's warned Tuesday that Lebanon's first-ever default on paying its sovereign debt will likely lead to significant losses for private creditors as well as serious implications for the country's banking sector.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Saturday said the government will suspend payment of $1.2 billion in loans that matured Monday. Diab said Lebanon's foreign currency reserves "have reached a critical stage," leading the government to suspend its debt payment so it can continue providing basic commodities to the Lebanese people.

Lebanon on Tuesday has recorded its first death from the new coronavirus, a health ministry source said.

The 56-year-old was receiving treatment in a state-run Beirut hospital, the ministry source told AFP, adding that he had recently returned from Egypt, where the virus has also spread.

The government is expected to meet on Tuesday in a session dedicated to discuss the financial and monetary situation and an economic plan to salvage crisis-hit Lebanon from an unprecedented economic and liquidity crisis.

Cash-strapped Lebanon’s foreign reserves stand at more than $20 billion, finance minister Ghazi Wazni said Monday, amid concerns over the country's liquidity as it stumbles towards default. 

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Monday criticized the government and its premier Hassan Diab in connection with the latter’s latest speech.

“What does this government have in store? Its premier did not mention a word about reform, the electricity sector, the protection of industry and the control of legal and illegal border crossings,” Jumblat tweeted.

Lebanon’s national carrier MEA on Monday announced the temporary suspension of its flights from and to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar until further announcement.

MEA said it took its decision “in light of the resolutions taken by a number of countries on halting travel with the aim of countering the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.”

Lebanon’s coronavirus cases rose to 41 on Monday following the confirmation of nine more infections, the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital said.

In a statement, it said it received 132 individuals at its special coronavirus section of whom 23 were kept in quarantine and the rest were told to observe home isolation.

A man suspected of being infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus was apprehended at Beirut’s airport and returned to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital after he refused to remain in hospital pending the results of the virus test.

Media reports had said that a “coronavirus patient” had escaped from the hospital overnight and headed to the airport where he was “arrested.”