Source: L'Orient Today
Security & Justice
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Watch: Israeli Army Blows Up Village Near the Border
The Israeli army is still blowing up entire villages or neighborhoods, especially those near the border.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Friday 22 December 2023 19:10:13
Is The New COVID-19 Strain In Lebanon Yet?
Amid concerns that a new COVID-19 variant may have reached Lebanon during the country’s crucial Christmas tourism season, the Health Ministry assured Thursday that the new JN.1 strain has not yet been detected.
Meanwhile, JN.1 continues to spread rapidly around the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Data so far does not indicate increased illness severity from the new strain, according to WHO.
There aren't enough new COVID-19 cases in Lebanon so far “to perform sequencing of the virus,” and determine whether or not the new subvariant has arrived, Nada Ghosn, the Health Ministry's director of epidemiology tracking, told L’Orient Today.
Testing for a new variant of COVID-19 cannot be possible until the COVID-19 “winter wave hits,” which is “expected at the end of December/the beginning of January,” Ghosn added.
According to Ghosn, Lebanon has transitioned from the summer wave of COVID-19, which spanned from August to November, to the current flu wave, dominated by seasonal flu subtypes AH1pdm and AH3.
She added that COVID-19 in Lebanon “is no longer a pandemic but [rather] seasonal.”
The past four weeks have seen a three percent positivity rate for hospital inpatients tested for COVID-19, with a much steeper 24 percent rate for flu, according to the Health Ministry’s respiratory infection surveillance report, prepared by Ghosn and published on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Ghosn recommended that high-risk groups, including the elderly, those with chronic diseases and young individuals consider annual shots for both COVID-19 and flu as a preventative measure.
Asked whether home tests are reliable in detecting the COVID virus, Ghosn endorsed WHO-approved tests.
