A French judicial team on Thursday questioned Lebanese-French businessman Ziad Takieddine in Beirut in the case of the suspected Libyan financing of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign.

A full lockdown started in Lebanon Thursday, with residents barred even from grocery shopping and dependent on food deliveries, in a bid to slow a surge in novel coronavirus cases.

The new restrictions were only loosely respected in some areas of the country, however, after mass protests in recent years against a political elite held responsible for a deepening economic crisis.

It was a choice between containing a spiraling virus outbreak and resuscitating a dying economy in a country that has been in steady financial and economic meltdown over the past year. Authorities in Lebanon chose the latter.

Now, virus patients struggling to breathe wait outside hospitals -- hoping for a bed or even a chair to open up. Ordinary people share contact lists of oxygen suppliers on social media as the the critical gas becomes scarce, and the sound of ambulances ferrying the ill echoes through Beirut. Around 500 of Lebanon's 14,000 doctors have left the crisis-ridden country in recent months, according to the Order of Physicians, putting a further strain on existing hospital staff.

Lebanese investigative judge Samaranda Nassar on Thursday issued an indictment in the case of a ship seized carrying ammonium nitrate, hunting rifles, explosives and detonation cables, the National News Agency said.

The Lebanon- and Africa-bound, Togo-flagged ship that sailed from Turkey’s Mersin was intercepted by Greek authorities west of the island of Crete on February 27, 2016, the indictment said. It was owned by Tripoli-based Lebanese nationals Kamal K. and Mohammed A.

Dr. Firass Abiad, the Manager and CEO of state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, warned Thursday that an 11-day strict lockdown that has been imposed to curb a huge spike in Covid-19 cases “should not fail.”

“In the last 24 hours alone, four Covid positive patients presented in cardiac arrest to our emergency room,” Abiad tweeted.

Lebanon filed a complaint with the Security Council over Israel’s nabbing of a Lebanese shepherd, Hassan Zahra, two days ago in the border area of Kfarshouba, LBCI reported Thursday.

Lebanese authorities began enforcing an 11-day nationwide shutdown and round the clock curfew Thursday, hoping to limit the spread of coronavirus infections spinning out of control after the holiday period.

For the first time, residents were required to request a one-hour permit to be allowed to leave the house for "emergencies," including going to the bakery, pharmacist, doctor, hospital or airport.

President Michel Aoun and PM-designate have “no choice but to reach consensus on the government formation” process, otherwise “everyone” else in Lebanon and the “nation” itself are going to “pay a hefty price,” al-Joumhouria daily reported Thursday.

Tension heightened at the Center House after the “insulting” remarks of President Michel Aoun about PM-designate Saad Hariri in a leaked video that circulated on social media outlets, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan was admitted Wednesday to hospital after he tested positive for coronavirus, the St. Georges Hadath Hospital said.

In a statement, the hospital described the minister’s situation as “good.”