WHO has issued guiding principles to minimize the risk of resurgence in COVID-19 cases when countries start lifting the lockdown measures.

The Lebanese authorities with WHO and other health partners are implementing the following 6 key criteria to prevent the escalation of transmission and maintain a steady state of low-level or no transmission:

1. COVID‑19 transmission is controlled to a level of sporadic cases and clusters of cases, to maintain the incidence of new cases at a level that the health system can manage.

• Active contact tracing and targeted surveillance are in place (electronic tools, including phone applications for referral and follow-up on cases, and call centre for referral);
• A national framework for the testing strategy is under preparation.

2. The health system and public health capacities are upgraded to enable a shift from detecting and treating mainly serious cases to detecting and isolating all cases.

• Influenza clinics are under provision to increase surveillance capacity.
• 42 community centres have been assessed and are under preparation for isolation of potential COVID-19 positive cases.
• 10 public hospitals are being upgraded and equipped for case management of potential COVID-19 positive cases.
• Health care workers have been trained on infection and prevention control in hospitals and primary health care centres.
• Laboratories performing COVID-19 testing are being upgraded to increase their testing capacity (capacity for RT-PCR testing increased 3 times since the first case was detected in Lebanon).

3. Outbreak risks in high vulnerability settings are minimized.

• Hygiene and infection prevention and control awareness campaigns are being disseminated (text and audio messages were translated to different languages and contextualized).
• Support is provided to reach the most vulnerable population (including refugees in camps and informal settlements) with hygiene, infection prevention and control kits and personal protective equipment.

4. Workplace preventive measures are established.

• Progressive relaxation of lockdown is adapted and lifting of restrictive measures will be implemented in 5 phases spread over 6 weeks.
• Decrees related to workplace preventive measures were issued by the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities.
• Front line health workers at primary health care centres and hospitals have been trained on screening and triage in order to reduce risk of disease transmission.

5. Risk of imported cases is managed.

• All points of entries are closed except for flights bringing repatriates who are all tested with RT-PCR and followed up for 14 days.

6. Communities are fully engaged to ensure that behavioural prevention measures are maintained.

• Information, Education and Communication material have been developed and disseminated.
• Community engagement activities and awareness campaigns have beenimplemented.