On Saturday, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warned of the recent rapid rise in the number of daily COVID-19 infections in Libya. It noted that the country has registered 1,710 cases within only 24 hours.
In a press briefing, UNICEF said that the total infection tally in the North-African country officially exceeded 200,000 cases, in addition to more than 3,200 deaths. This was also affirmed by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its daily COVID-19 update.
UNICEF called on Libyan citizens to protect themselves, their families and the community by getting vaccinated, and also abide by wearing a face mask, keeping physical distance and washing hands regularly.
Yesterday, the Libyan government announced the closure of the country’s borders with Tunisia for a week. It also decided to suspend classes at schools and universities for two weeks, as Libya grapples with a rise in COVID-19 infections.
A member of the Epidemiology Committee at the NCDC, Tarek Jibril, attributed the increase in cases to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant in neighboring countries.
He further stated that Libya is grappling with the pandemic’s third wave, and urged the population to abide by the preventive measures.
The decision came as a precautionary step to what the government described as the “worsening situation” in the “collapsed health system,” as well as the increasing number of cases with the delta variant in Tunisia.
Last week Libya received the third shipment of the Russian Sputnik vaccine.