Libya says it has recorded 650 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections to 78,473, said the National Center for Disease Control of Libya.
Meanwhile, 678 patients have recovered and 13 others died during the same period, raising the total recoveries to 49,592 and the national death toll to 1,102.
Since the first case was reported in March, Libyan authorities have taken a series of precautionary measures against the pandemic, including closing the country’s borders, shutting down schools and mosques, banning public gatherings, and imposing a curfew.
According to Stephanie Williams, the Acting Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General in Libya, the first two weeks of November saw a 22-per cent increase in the number of cases, with Libya’s biggest cities – Tripoli, Misrata, and Benghazi – witnessing the largest increases.
“With limited testing capacity and poor mortality surveillance, the numbers are a fraction of what health experts suspect to be the true scale of the problem,” she told the UN Security Council recently.
