TRIPOLI, Nov 24 (NNN-Xinhua) — Libya reported 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 Acting Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General in Libya Stephanie Williams, the first two weeks of November saw a 22-percent 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.
Separately, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that seven illegal immigrants drowned off the Libyan coast over the past week.
“In the period of 17-23 November, the bodies of 7 immigrants washed up on shore and no survivors returned to Libya,” IOM said.
The IOM also said that 11,765 illegal immigrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far in 2020, compared with 9,225 in 2019.
The IOM also revealed that a total of 312 illegal immigrants died and 414 others went missing on the Central Mediterranean route so far this year, compared with 270 deaths and 992 missing immigrants last year. — NNN-XINHUA