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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2021; 13(04): 209-214
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_73_21
Original Article

One-year analysis of trends of COVID-19 in Libya: Cases, deaths, and laboratory testing

Rafik Elmehdawi
1   Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi
,
Sara Glessa
2   Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi
,
Amal Elfakhri
3   Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi
,
Ahmed Elhaddad
1   Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi
,
Ahmed Elhassi
1   Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi
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Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Libya started at the end of March 2020. Since then, the number of daily reported cases has progressively increased. Objectives: This study aims to analyze the trends and dynamics of the epidemic in Libya. Materials and Methods: The study analyzed the data reported daily by the Libyan national center of disease control. Results: The total number of tests performed per thousand people was 121.08 test/1000 people, which is a modest rate compared with countries categorized in the same income group. The overall positivity rate of all performed tests over 1 year was 18.1%. During most of the weeks, the positivity rate was far higher than the 5% rate indicating that the epidemic was out of control most of the year. The level of community transmission was moderate to substantial during most of the year, reflecting the weakness in applying the public health control measures. The calculated 1-year instant case-fatality rate of COVID-19 in Libya was 1.89%, comparable to that in other upper-middle-income countries. Conclusions: The number of performed tests in Libya during the 1st year of the COVID-19 epidemic is inadequate and must be at least doubled to increase the chances of diagnosing more potential cases. Based on the current positivity rate, the epidemic appears to be out of control since July 2021. This should urge the authorities to impose further enforcement of the standard public health measures.

Key-words:

Community transmission - COVID-19 - Libya - mortality - recovery

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 01 October 2021

Accepted: 14 October 2021

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2021. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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