Lebanon registers 1st infection with new COVID-19 variant

Lebanese Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Friday that one passenger arriving in Beirut from Britain carries the new variant of COVID-19, reported Xinhua.

"One case was registered on the flight ME 202 arriving in Beirut from Britain on Monday, and we call on all passengers who were on the plane to be cautious and to take all necessary precautions," Hassan said in a tweet.

The minister added that the ministry is following up on the infected case while he urged all other passengers who were on the same flight to take PCR tests and quarantine.

Health experts have called in the past few days for halting flights from the concerned states to Lebanon to prevent the new variant, but no such measures have been taken yet.