issue with Laravel when trying to use Azure SQL server; count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable

I am trying to use SQL server with Laravel 5.6 and PHP 7.2.9 I have configured my database.php as follows.

'sqlsrv' => [
        'driver' => 'sqlsrv',
        'host' => 'servername.database.windows.net',
        'port' => '1433',
        'database' => 'databasename',
        'username' => 'username',
        'password' => 'password',
        'charset' => 'utf8',
        'prefix' => '',
    ],

I have also created this file .env.production which has the following configuration.

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_KEY=<APP_KEY>
DB_CONNECTION=sqlsrv
DB_HOST=<servername.database.windows.net>
DB_DATABASE=<databasename>
DB_USERNAME=<username>
DB_PASSWORD=<password>

When I run the application locally, I don't have any problems. However, when I tried to run the application locally using a Azure's SQL database I get this error:

count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable and it is pointing to this file: C:\Users\Yaqeen\Desktop\cloud\vendor\guzzlehttp\guzzle\src\Handler\CurlFactory.php

This error shows up after a few second from this error: Session store not set on request.

Any suggestion or help is much appreciated. I have searched for a solution but failed to find any.

via Chebli Mohamed