Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Wednesday assured the Lebanese that all necessary measures were taken to contain the spread of coronavirus, saying the situation is “under control.”

As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus disease, Speaker Nabih Berri was notified that a meeting scheduled in March for the the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union was postponed, MTV station reported on Wednesday.

The meeting was set to be held in Cairo on March 7-8. It was postponed “until further notice,” said the station.

The final version of a “capital control” law prepared by a committee of legal and financial experts will reportedly be discussed during the cabinet meeting on Thursday, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

Lebanon’s banks on Tuesday expressed readiness to cooperate with the government in order to reschedule the state’s debt, a media report said.

“But they called on the government to negotiate with the foreign firms,” LBCI TV reported.

Lebanon's health minister said Tuesday hospitals were ready to deal with any further spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, where 13 cases have been recorded with no deaths.

Hamad Hasan said the cases had all either returned from an affected country or were transmitted through "close contact" with a family member or neighbor -- not "local transmission."

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday criticized what it described as “a major flaw in the measures that accompanied the arrival of the Iranian planes from the cities of Mashhad and Qom to Beirut,” amid the major outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Iran.

“The spread of the disease and the confirmation of new cases against which there had been warnings expose a major flaw in the measures that accompanied the arrival of the Iranian planes from the cities of Mashhad and Qom to Beirut from the very first day,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Lebanon’s first coronavirus patient tested negative for the virus on Tuesday as lab tests conducted for all suspected cases over the past 24 hours also indicated that they are not infected, the Health Ministry said.

The Ministry added in a statement that the test will be repeated Wednesday for the country’s first patient and that she will be discharged from hospital should she anew test negative.

Lawmaker Assem Araji on Tuesday lauded the medical team efforts at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, saying they are “the front medical defense line in the country,” against the coronavirus disease.

Lebanese protesters and several MPs staged a sit-in near the Swiss embassy in Beirut demanding the refund of capital flight transferred abroad after the October 17 uprising, as Lebanon grapples with a liquidity crisis unprecedented in its history.

They gathered in front of the embassy before meeting with Swiss Ambassador to Lebanon, Monika Schmutz Kirgِz, to deliver a petition they had signed to recover looted state funds.

The Lebanese Embassy in Rome called in a statement on all Lebanese nationals in Italy to exercise caution and follow the general precaution guidelines facing the widespread of COVID-19 disease, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

NNA said the embassy advised Lebanese residing in Italy to avoid travel to Lebanon at the present time "except when absolutely necessary," in order to avoid the transmission of the virus, which can be deadly to their families, especially the elderly, and those with low immunity.