Libya, COVID-19, health diplomacy, and COVAX

Abstract

The Pandemic of SARS-2 coronavirus with its associated disease (COVID-19) could not have hit the ailing health System in Libya in worse times;[[1]],[[2]] Close to 100,000 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Libya by the end of 2020.[[2]] This represents the highest number (1405 cases in every 100,000 inhabitants) in North Africa. The reported mortality rate of (20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) is also among the worst in the WHO's East Mediterranean region.[[2]] All that despite a relatively small number (total 535,108) of polymerase chain reaction tests performed in the whole country since the beginning of the pandemic, with 17.9% cumulative positivity rate[[2]] which is far higher than the 5% target threshold in testing for COVID-19, i.e., the actual number of infections and COVID19-related mortality in Libya could be 3–4 times higher than the figures reported above particularly among vulnerable groups including the internally displaced, residents of nursing homes, illegal immigrants, etc.