Lebanon’s new government of PM Hassan Diab “unanimously” approved the Policy Statement during a meeting at Baabda Palace on Thursday, on which it will seek the Parliament’s confidence vote expectantly next week.

Health Minister Hamad Hasan said Wednesday that a Lebanese student who arrived from China is being quarantined at the Rafik Hariri state-run hospital in Beirut despite being “in good health” and showing no symptoms of being infected with the novel coronavirus that has killed 490 people in China.

“The Lebanese student who arrived from China is in good health and is not showing any symptoms,” Hasan told the National News Agency.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday said he has managed to “confirm” that the owners of five Lebanese banks have sent their “personal money” abroad, estimated at $2.3 billion, despite the informal capital controls that have been imposed on depositors since November.

He was speaking during his weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting with lawmakers.

The syndicate of gas station owners on Wednesday threatened to stage a new strike or issue their own price lists if the Energy Ministry does not distribute the losses resulting from the dollar shortage crisis in a fairer manner.

They described the prices list issued this week by the ministry as a “stab in the back.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Wednesday said that Lebanon should first “support itself” if it wants to receive international economic and financial support.

“Reforms, reforms, reforms,” Kubis said during a meeting with the Press Editors Syndicate when asked about the U.N.’s conditions for helping Lebanon during this period.

Activist Toni Khoury was interrogated on Wednesday over road blocking charges as the country grapples with nationwide demos, but he assured that protests against corruption will not cease despite “everything” saying “they have seen nothing yet.”

Belgium Foreign and Defense Minister Philippe Goffin is in Beirut as part of a regional tour to hold meetings with senior officials.

A supply vessel, Lundstrom Tide, arrived at Beirut Port in preparation for offshore drilling and exploration works, LBCI reported on Wednesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat said he can not “cooperate” with the presidential term of President Michel Aoun, and that the latter “complies” to poor guidance by a group of advisers close to him, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Wednesday.

A fistfight erupted Tuesday evening between anti-government protesters and supporters of MP Ziad Aswad outside the Diwan Beirut Restaurant in Antelias.