Coronavirus toll

Tunisia

Tunisia has recorded only four new coronavirus infections on the eve of a government move to ease lockdown measures in the country.

In a press statement, the Health Ministry said that four people tested positive for the COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the toll up to 1,013.

It pointed out that coronavirus fatalities stood at 41.

There are now 643 active cases receiving treatment including 25 in intensive care units, the ministry said, noting that 328 COVID-19 patients have fully recovered and discharged from hospitals.

The ministry emphasized the importance of sticking to preventive measures and home and facility quarantine rules to defeat the pandemic.

Lebanon

It’s not just a lifestyle, it’s a livelihood. That was the motto used by some of Lebanon’s best-known nightclubs to raise money for thousands of bartenders, waiters and support staff who have been without a job since the country imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown in mid-March.

The club owners pulled together a threeday fundraising marathon: 150 DJs from around the world spun their records in five different virtual rooms over the weekend in a non-stop electronic music festival. By Sunday night, they had raised the equivalent of $36,000.

The initiative is unlikely to make a dent. The hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard by the government-mandated closures which followed a series of bad seasons. The pandemic delivered just the latest blow to an economy already devastated by the worst financial crisis since the country’s civil war days, which ended in 1990.

Afghanistan

One-third of 500 random coronavirus tests in Afghanistan’s capital came back positive, health officials said, raising fears of widespread undetected infections in one of the world’s most fragile states.

Neighboring Iran, meanwhile, said it would reopen schools and mosques in some locations, even though the nation has been the regional epicenter of the pandemic since mid-February.