Authorities in Lebanon announced a new lockdown as well as an overnight curfew in a move to contain rising COVID-19 cases in the country, news agency AFP reported. 

According to the interior ministry, the lockdown will be effective from Friday and last for just over two weeks. However, it will not affect any clean-up or aid proceedings related to the August 4 blasts in Beirut.

With a curfew imposed from 6 a.m to 6 pm, malls will remain closed and restaurant delivery will be restricted because of reduced operating hours. Ministries will operate with half the number of staff.

However, the areas which have been damaged due to the port blast will be exempt from these restrictions as clean-up operations are underway. Airports will also be allowed to function normally.

Hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser exploded at Beirut port in the heart of the city, laying waste to surrounding neighbourhoods, killing 177 and wounding thousands more.

Lebanon was already seeing rising cases of the novel coronavirus before the blast but has reported a string of record tallies in recent weeks.

Authorities reported another one-day record of 456 new infections on Monday, followed by a further 421 on Tuesday that brought the total to 9,758 including 107 deaths since the start of the outbreak in February.

A previously planned lockdown was scrapped in the wake of the explosion, which flattened neighbourhoods near the port and left thousands homeless.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan warned on Monday that hospitals were reaching maximum capacity to treat novel coronavirus patients after the Beirut blast overwhelmed health centres already stretched by the virus.

“Public and private hospitals in the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators,” he said.

“We are on the brink, we don’t have the luxury to take our time,” he warned.