BEIRUT -- Lebanese caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan was infected with COVID-19 and hospitalized in Saint George Hospital University Medical Center for treatment, the National News Agency (NNA) reported Wednesday.

Hassan's health condition is stable, a hospital statement was quoted by NNA as saying.

Hassan announced earlier in the day that he had started a quarantine pending the necessary tests, after it was confirmed that three of his office members were infected with COVID-19.

This is the sixth minister in the Lebanese caretaker government to be infected with COVID-19, after the ministers of Public Work, Foreign Affairs, Sports, Communications, and Labor.

Lebanon recorded on Wednesday 4,988 new COVID-19 cases and 35 more deaths, raising the total number to 231,936 and the death toll from the virus to 1,740 respectively.