Libya will be one of the last countries to receive Coronavirus vaccine

He stressed that there are many causes for worry when it comes to the Covid-19 situation in Libya, especially with most of the 96 isolation centres in Libya being ill-equipped to handle the rampantly growing number of infections.

“There are infected people who lost their lives without reaching hospitals or isolation centres,” Al-Awkali added, in an interview with the Russian Sputnik news agency.

He pointed out that state-run labs are unable to provide a sufficient number of PCR test kits to diagnose an accurate number of cases or reach the terminal cases in time to diagnose them and give them the help they need to overcome the virus in hospitals or isolation centres.

He warned that due to the delay in the transfer of funds by the Libyan Central Bank to the COVAX group in the global initiative agreement to provide to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, Libya might be one of the last countries in the world to receive its share of the vaccinations.

He added that even if Libya were to receive the sum of vaccines it agreed to initially, the 2.8 million doses will only be enough to vaccinate just around 20% of all Libyan.

Al-Awakali declared that Libya is on the verge of a deadly disaster when it comes to Covid-19 as the country’s isolation centres and hospitals are at full capacity and people not abiding by social distancing rules and staying home, the number of cases is bound to continue increasing.

Earlier this week, the UN UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Libya announced that in North Africa, Libya has the highest number of Covid-19 cases per capita, amounting to 1,479 per 100,000 people.