By Sami Zaptia.
London, 7 July 2020:
Libya’s Coronavirus cases continue to rise as the Tripoli government extended the curfew in the western region.
Libya’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported yesterday that positive Coronavirus cases had now reached 1,117, with 269 recoveries and 34 deaths. Most new cases are now in southern Libya.
Meanwhile, the Tripoli-based Libyan government extended the curfew for another 10 days from today until 17 July – confounding expectations that it was going to abandon it. It also kept in place the 24-hour curfew over the weekend and the ban on movement between cities.
The expectation that the curfew would be abandoned was based on the fact that most Libyans are ignoring social distancing and not wearing masks.
The failure of Libya to control the rate of spread of its Coronavirus, lift its curfew, reopen its borders and airports is beginning to hurt many Libyans in view of the fact that neighbouring Tunisia has returned to a relative normality with the reopening of its airports to most European flights.
