Libya Launches Nationwide COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign

On Saturday, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh was the first to get vaccinated in the country to demonstrate the safety of the vaccines.

Today, Libya launched a nationwide COVID Vaccination campaign, prioritizing frontline workers and vulnerable groups in the country.

Al-Dbeibeh, announced in a speech, in front of the National Center for Disease Control in Tripoli, that the Libyans are seeking to move beyond the years of war and move towards peace, with their heads held high.

“Through my recent visit to the Gulf countries, we announce our openness to the world. We want peace and put an end to conflicts in our homeland, the prime minister noted.

Libya has received more than 57,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX initiative.

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the doses that arrived late Thursday have been earmarked to health workers, people older than 75, and people with chronic disease.

Libya’s National Center for Disease Control said 57,600 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine were in the first COVAX shipment to Libya.

Last week, Libya received 101,250 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.

Libya has seen swelling COVID-19 cases. The county of around 7 million people has reported more than 166,000 confirmed cases and 2,799 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. However, the actual numbers, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher.