Highlights:
• Week 33 reported a further decrease in case incidence and weekly lab testing rate as compared with Week 32. At the national level, transmission classification for Libya remained at a high incidence of community transmission (CT3) in week 33, with the circulation of BA.2 and BA.5.2 Variants of Concern (VOC), with an 18.6% weekly test positivity rate and 4.1 cases/100,000 population/week. Moreover, Libya had an inadequate lab testing rate at the national level in all regions, with only 22 persons tested/per 100,000 population/per week. (See Table III)
• All districts in the West are in a very high to a high incidence of community transmission (CT3- CT4) based on positivity rates, with Tripoli having the highest case incidence in the country. The testing rates in the East and South are limited to assess the level of community transmission. The lab testing data from the East region has not been reported, although the testing is being done.
• Twelve COVID-19 labs (out of 42) reported 1,550 (1,468 PCR and 82 Ag-RDT) tests done in epi week 33. Thus, out of the 2,528,823 tests in Libya since the beginning of the response, 506,602 (20.0%) were confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).
• The overall number of new cases reported in Week 33 shows a 43% decrease (288 cases) as compared to Week 32, with West reporting a 43% decrease in new cases. The South reported 3 cases, and the East reported no cases.
• In Week 33, a single death was reported across Libya, that in the West.
• Compared to Week 32, there was a 23% decrease in overall national testing: by regions, West (1510 tests; 22% decrease), East (no tests reported; 100% decrease), and South (40 tests; 25% increase). Thus, 97.4% of national testing was performed in the West as compared to both East (0%) and South (2.6%) Regions. (-see Table. 1). West represents 64%, East represents 28%, and South represents 8% Libyan population.
• For Week 33, the national weekly positivity rate compared with week 32 decreased to 18.6%; West, East, and South had 18.9%, 0% (no testing done), and 7.5% weekly positivity rates. WHO recommends that positivity rates be kept below 5% in all districts in a country.