Libya calls for imposing preventive measures against COVID-19 in public areas

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday called on competent authorities to impose preventive measures against COVID-19 in public areas amid surging cases nationwide.

The center also recommended launching nation-wide awareness campaigns against the virus, particularly in eastern and southern Libya.

It urged the authorities to provide more support to the isolation centers to increase their capacity, and called for launching mobile vaccination campaigns to vaccinate as many people as possible.

A total of 445,876 cases have been reported nationwide with 397,291 recoveries and 6,052 deaths, the center said. Up to 2,057,141 people have received one COVID-19 vaccine dose while 1,016,493 have received two, and 29,644 have got a booster shot.

Last month, the center announced that the country has officially entered into the fourth wave of the pandemic, as infections increased significantly.

On Dec. 29, 2021, Libyan health authorities identified the country's first cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.