At the end of the session, the Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad read the following statement:
“The Council of Ministers convened today in a session, at Baabda Palace, chaired by the President of the Republic and attended by the Prime Minister and the ministers. At the beginning, the President spoke focusing on the importance of judicial investigations taking place in the context of combating corruption, stressing that these investigations must reach end in all the tackled topics, especially as public opinion is following what is happening and is awaiting decisive approaches in this issue.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister said: “We are on the second day of the phase of gradually reopening the country, but unfortunately, it is clear that people have cut all stages and opened the country without adhering to the preventive measures, and this is what we feared.
The number of injuries is increasing, and the fear today is that the situation will turn into a disaster and that there will be a breakdown in the entire health system that we have built over three months. The Lebanese, who committed themselves to the measures, made great sacrifices, and they sustained economic damage due to the closure. The medical, nursing and health teams exerted great efforts during the last period. What is happening is frightening, and it is not permissible to give up. We understand the economic conditions of commercial enterprises, but we never understand people’s negligence and their lack of responsibility. The situation cannot remain the same. It is necessary to strictly enforce gags, sterilization, and spacing.
If the health collapse takes place, God forbid, the result will be disastrous for the country. Once again, I appeal to the Lebanese not to underestimate this pandemic, and to take protection measures. And I ask the security forces to tighten up the imposition of measures, otherwise we will be facing a major problem. If the chaos continues, we will completely shut down the country, and we will institute unprecedented measures. The lives of people are more important than the economy, and basically nothing of the economy will remain if we lose the lives of the people”.
After that, the cabinet studied the topics on its agenda and took appropriate decisions:
1- Completing the progress of the contract signed between “Sonatrach” and the Ministry of Energy and Water and following up the research on the subject presented by the latter in a future session after receiving the opinion of the Legislative and Consulting Authority in the Justice Ministry regarding it.
2- Approval of the Education Ministry’s request, exceptionally, to cancel the course of the year 2020 for the general secondary exams in all its branches and the technical baccalaureate in all its forms, in accordance with the controls and the completion of the remote academic year for all academic and vocational stages.
3- Mandate the Council for Development and Reconstruction to renegotiate with the company, the owner of the “Ghosta” factory for sorting and treating solid household waste in light of the comments of the Ministers.