BEIRUT: Travelers coming to Lebanon from countries without PCR tests will be quarantined in designated hotels, Health Minister Hamad Hasan announced Tuesday.

All arrivals from countries that do not have PCR will be quarantined in designated hotels at measured prices in coordination with the tourism minister, Hasan said.

Hasan stressed that Lebanon was at the door of the fourth stage and we will work hard to improve the situation and return to the third stage.

The fourth stage of an epidemic is when an epidemic has become uncontrollable and large clusters of coronavirus are found across a country. The third stage is when new cases are spreading within the community and some are untraceable.

In an interview late Monday with the Associated Press, Hasan said 20 percent of recent cases were untraceable.

The new quarantine rules come after several clusters were caused by returnees who failed to self-isolate.

With new cases between July 8 and July 9 doubling, Hasan in a news conference blamed the dramatic rise in cases on a returnee.

The number of infected today will be shocking because of a [traveler] who mixed with his surrounding, attending a wedding and going to the pool without taking the necessary precautions or adhering to quarantining after his return, he said.

Publicly available data, compiled by health consultant Sara Chang, put the positivity rate among inbound travelers since April 6 at 3.6 percent.

Since Feb. 21, 2020, a total of 2,905 people in Lebanon have tested positive for the disease. It has killed 41, while 1,562 have recovered.

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