Tripoli, 27 April 2020. WHO expresses its sincere appreciation to the Government of France for its contribution to help the Organization respond to COVID-19 in Libya. As of 27 April, there were 61 confirmed cases of the disease in the country.

“France’s funding comes at a critical time”, said Ms Elizabeth Hoff, WHO’s Representative in Libya. “The number of cases is growing fast, and there has been local transmission of the disease. We know from experience in other countries that it is vitally important to isolate COVID-19 patients and trace their contacts to limit the spread of the disease. We will use the contribution of the Government of France to strengthen these two components of our response.”

As the lead agency of the health cluster, WHO is coordinating the COVID-19 response with all partners and working closely with the National Centre for Disease Control to align the health sector response to Libya’s own national plan. However, the extreme insecurity is hampering efforts to respond during the all-important early stages of the outbreak. Despite international calls for a ceasefire to allow the authorities to tackle the pandemic, fighting between warring parties has continued and there have been further attacks on hospitals and health care centres.

WHO has appealed for US$ 3.265 million to fund its response to COVID-19 in Libya. Thus far, it has received approximately US$ 1.8 million.