Lebanon's government agreed Monday to pay tens of thousands of poor families cash assistance in U.S. dollars from a World Bank loan as the country's economic crisis deepens.

The decision comes as Lebanon is expected to end subsidies for fuel by the end of next month, a move that is expected to lead to sharp increases in prices of almost all products.

Students in Lebanon will return to the classroom starting next month, the education minister said Monday, amid fears an accelerating economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic would prevent schools from reopening.

Rights groups have decried an "education catastrophe", with more than a million children in Lebanon out of school since the country's Covid-19 outbreak began in February last year.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday ridiculed Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s declared plans for bringing fuel ships from Iran.

“As for Sayyed Hassan’s promised ship, it is nothing but a silly little joke amid the tragedy that we are living,” Geagea said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun on Monday hoped the coming days “will carry positive developments regarding the formation of the government.”

He added that the formation of a new cabinet “would launch a recovery workshop at the various levels.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea admits the country has hit rock bottom amid its economic downturn but has cautioned against drawing parallels to the civil war era.

“Lebanon is at the bottom now. You can see the miserable state of the economy and the daily, unbearable life struggles,” Geagea said in an English-language interview with the Emirati newspaper The National.

The optimism that engulfed the cabinet formation process in the past days has largely retreated and the possibility of PM-designate Najib Miqati’s resignation has become a “more than serious choice,” a media report published Monday said.

“The formation picture is not reassuring and we are before a critical week regarding the government,” informed political sources told the al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Drenched in sweat, doctors check patients lying on stretchers in the reception area of Lebanon's largest public hospital. Air conditioners are turned off, except in operating rooms and storage units, to save on fuel.

Medics scramble to find alternatives to saline solutions after the hospital ran out. The shortages are overwhelming, the medical staff exhausted. And with a new surge in coronavirus cases, Lebanon's hospitals are at a breaking point.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday announced that a second ship carrying fuel will sail to Lebanon “within days.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at the bickering Lebanese officials, saying that “it seems that they don’t want a government.”

President Michel Aoun’s insistence on obtaining a so-called blocking one-third in the new cabinet is what’s delaying its formation, a prominent parliamentary source said.