DUBAI: Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hasan said the country will begin mass coronavirus testing next week, national newspaper The Daily Star reported on Saturday.

The ministry plans carry out approximately 1,500 tests per day and incorporate random testing to gather more accurate data on COVID-19 in Lebanon, Hasan added.

“The results today are good and we are proceeding according to the plan and taking great care so that there is no excessive optimism,” Hasan said in a press conference.

On Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has allocated $797 million to cover the costs of COVID-19, which has forced industries across the globe to shut down.

He said the fund would “help daily workers in the public sector, support the health sector and farmers, and give small industrial enterprises subsidized loans to stimulate the national industry.”

Diab added the epidemic has worsened the country’s decades-old economic, financial and social crises, and has made “the situation more difficult and critical.”

Lebanon has confirmed 672 coronavirus infections, 21 deaths and 99 recoveries.