On Saturday, the Health Ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA) announced that it has successfully managed to localise PCR testing devices for diagnosing COVID-19 patients in 25 districts nationwide.
In a statement, the ministry said that it had also trained a big number of medical and assisting staffs to learn how to use these testing devices, noting that this comes in accordance with the agreement signed with Biotechnology Research Centre.
The ministry explained that the signing of the agreement is part of its commitment to develop the national plan to combat the coronavirus, which requires raising tracking procedures, monitoring suspected cases, and increasing the number of daily tests.
It also confirmed that this agreement allowed the ministry to train more than 120 medical staffs during the first phase, in addition to inaugurating more medical laboratories to examine suspected cases of coronavirus in a number of cities.
The ministry stated that the agreement will be valid for five years, during which the biotechnology research will work to cover its needs in terms of advanced medical devices and equipment, as well as operating materials for detecting communicable and genetic diseases.
Notably, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that three flights carrying medical supplies to combat COVID-19 have arrived in Libya, as the pandemic continues to spread rapidly in the North African country.
The coronavirus is putting new pressures on an already stressed public healthcare network that cannot ensure the safety of its workers and is struggling to coordinate a coherent response to COVID-19 between different warring authorities across the country.