ReliefWeb

Highlights:

• Libya reported a declining trend in cases for the sixth week proportional to decrease in the lab testing. Although it is important to note that there is still ongoing high to very high incidence of community transmission in all districts in the country based on positivity rates and case incidence.

• 28 COVID-19 labs (out of 36) reported 36,189 new lab tests done in Epi-week 36. Thus, out of the 1,611,629 tests in Libya since the beginning of the response, 325,221 (20.2%) were confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

• Compared to Epi-week 34, there was a 10% decrease in overall national testing: by regions, West (11% decrease),
South (19% increase) and East (11% increase). Thus, 83.9% (30,358) of national testing was performed in the West as compared to both East (only 4241 tests) and South (only 1590 tests) Regions. (-see fig. 1)

• The national positivity rate for Epi-week has a decreasing trend since week 28. It decreased from 23.8% in week 35 to 23.3 in week 36, mainly representing the West with a positivity rate of 20.8%. It cannot be generalized based on the positivity rate in the East (33.3%) and South (44%), which differ markedly from the national-level positivity rate. It is recommended that positivity rates should be kept below 5% in all districts. National numbers of cases, deaths and lab tests are skewed to West.

• Case incidence per 100,000 decreased from 137 in week 35 to 124 in week 36 and remains in high incidence of locally acquired, widely dispersed cases, with high risk of infection for general population The overall number of new cases reported in EPID week 36 shows a 10% decrease (8,424 cases) from 9,326 cases last week with West reporting a 14% decrease in new patients. East reported a 3% decrease and South had a 25% increase in cases.

• Libya has not reported an official confirmation of the Delta variant. However, Delta is suspected because of its circulation in neighboring Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. Neighboring Sudan has reported a Gamma variant. Libya remains classified under community transmission (high to very high incidence) with Alpha and Beta Variants of Concern (VOC) circulation.

• In Epi-week 36, the number of new deaths (98) showed a 25% decrease compared to last week. As a result, the mortality rate decreased from 1.9 to 1.4 deaths per 100,000 cases, with a case fatality rate of 1.2%. As compared to last week, West reported a 38% decrease in deaths for the reporting week, East (5% decrease) and no change reported in South (- see table 1)