Libya sees 1st virus case as more curfews called in Mideast
Albert Aji | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO
FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2020 file photo, Yazan, 1, sits with his mother before his heart surgery at the Tajoura National Heart Center in Tripoli, Libya. Yazan's odyssey from his small desert hometown to the hospital barely skirted the war's front lines. In conflict zones across the Middle East, the specter of the coronavirus looms large. Authorities in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip warn that health care systems gutted by years of war and unrest have left millions of people doubly vulnerable to the pandemic. For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms…
In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, photo, two foreign women tourists ride camels at the Giza Pyramids near Cairo, Egypt. The country's prime minister announced at a news conference on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, a two-week, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for its over 100 million people to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The 11-hour curfew would go into effect Wednesday across the country and last for two weeks. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A worker disinfects around King Tut's famous mask in the Egyptian Museum in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Hamada Elrasam)
A worker disinfects in the hall of the Queens, in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Hamada Elrasam)
A worker disinfects the Royal Mummies Hall, in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Hamada Elrasam)
A man shelters from the rain with an umbrella a he walks past an old building decorated with replica of Iranian old paintings in a mostly empty street in a commercial district in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2020. On Sunday, Iran imposed a two-week closure on major shopping malls and centers across the country to prevent spreading the new coronavirus. Pharmacies, supermarkets, groceries and bakeries will remain open. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A cat walks in a mostly empty street in a commercial district in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2020. On Sunday, Iran imposed a two-week closure on major shopping malls and centers across the country to prevent spreading the new coronavirus. Pharmacies, supermarkets, groceries and bakeries will remain open. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Dome of the Rock is seen at a deserted al-Aqsa mosque compound as all prayers are suspended to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Jerusalem, Monday, March 23, 2020. In Israel daily life has largely shut down with coronavirus cases multiplying greatly over the past week, (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
People pray in front of the shuttered gates to al-Aqsa mosque compound as all prayers are suspended to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Jerusalem, Monday, March 23, 2020. In Israel daily life has largely shut down with coronavirus cases multiplying greatly over the past week, (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli police patrols deserted street in Jerusalem's Old City, in Jerusalem, Monday, March 23, 2020. In Israel daily life has largely shut down with coronavirus cases multiplying greatly over the past week, (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
An Orthodox Christian priest checks his phone at an empty plaza in front to the Church of the Holy Sepluchre, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was buried, in Jerusalem, Monday, March 23, 2020. In Israel daily life has largely shut down with coronavirus cases multiplying greatly over the past week, (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Yazan, 1, cries as he is prepared for heart surgery at the Tajoura National Heart Center in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 27, 2020. Libya has only one heart surgeon who can't possibly perform surgeries on 1,200 or so infants born every year with heart defects. But an international team of experts, part of the Novick Cardiac Alliance, regularly flies into Libya to perform surgery on patients like Yazan. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
CAIRO (AP) —
Libya recorded its first confirmed case of the coronavirus on Tuesday, the U.N.-backed government announced, stoking concern that an outbreak could overwhelm the war-torn country's already weakened health care system.
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the Middle East, countries have sought to slow the increase of cases by limiting the movements of hundreds of millions of people. The Arab world's most populous country, Egypt, as well as Syria, a country ravaged by nine years of war, became the latest countries to impose nightly curfews starting this week.
The International Monetary Fund meanwhile said that shortages in crucial medical supplies could drive up prices and inflict pain on the Mideast's poorest nations.
There are over 31,000 cases of the virus across the Mideast, the vast majority in the hard-hit nation of Iran. While most recover from the virus and the COVID-19 illness that it causes, it is highly contagious and causes severe illness in some patients, particularly the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Bottoming crude oil prices have put additional strain on even the region's wealthiest countries, affecting their ability to cope as the virus strains medical systems worldwide.
A 73-year-old man who crossed into Libya from neighboring Tunisia on March 5 became the large North African country's first recorded case. The Libyan patient had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, according to the National Center for Disease Control, and is receiving medical treatment for his fever and cough in isolation at a Tripoli hospital.
The confirmation of Libya's first case, three weeks after the patient's arrival in the country, poses a test for its fragile medical system. Attempts at a nationwide disease protection program have been undermined by the country's division between two rival governments, in the east and west of the country, and a patchwork of armed groups supporting either administration. Even on Tuesday, Tripoli's suburbs came under heavy fire as the United Nations appealed for a freeze in fighting so authorities could focus on preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile in Egypt, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly told reporters that the 11-hour nationwide curfew from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. would go into effect Wednesday, during which public transportation would also come to a halt. Egypt has confirmed 402 cases and 22 fatalities, including two senior military officers.
Madbouly announced the continued closure of airports, schools and universities until April 12. He said non-essential shops will close Fridays and Saturdays, Egypt's weekend. The government has already locked down populous tourist cities in the south and the Red Sea, as well as shuttered museums and archeological sites, including the famed Giza Pyramids.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi warned that attempts to violate the announced measures would be met with “the utmost firmness and decisiveness."
With mosques closed, dozens of people in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria took to their balconies before dawn to pray for help against the virus, online videos showed. Other footage showed some three dozen people spilling into a side street and chanting: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger.” Several of the participants were later arrested.
In Syria, where the healthcare system has been decimated by nearly a decade of civil war, the government said an apparently open-ended nightly curfew beginning at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) will go into effect Wednesday.
Syria has reported only one case of the coronavirus so far, but it has enforced strict containment measures in government-held areas including grounding commercial flights, closing borders and shutting down restaurants and public transportation. Long lines streamed outside grocery stores, banks and gas stations across the Syrian capital, Damascus, as people braced for wider closures.
The IMF, which traditionally has told governments to implement greater austerity measures, was urging Mideast governments to offer temporary tax relief and cash transfers. It warned a lack of medical supplies could hurt Iraq, Sudan and Yemen if it leads to a surge in prices.
“Given the large numbers of people employed in the service sector, there will be wide reverberations if unemployment rises and wages and remittances fall,” the IMF’s director for the Middle East, Jihad Azour, said in statement.
In the impoverished Gaza Strip, which has detected two coronavirus cases, Hamas-run religious authorities shut down all mosques for two weeks. Qatari-funded shipments of food, electric appliances, clothes, furniture and fuel arrived Tuesday at temporary quarantine centers in Gaza, part of a $150 million boost from the oil-rich nation to fight the virus. Gaza's Health Ministry has opened more than 20 quarantine facilities housing 1,400 people.
An Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, imposed when the militant group took power in 2007, has slowed the arrival of the new virus to the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
The worst outbreak in the Mideast is unfolding in Iran, where authorities reported another 122 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of fatalities to more than 1,900 amid more than 24,800 confirmed cases. The dead included the mother-in-law of the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the state-run IRNA news agency said Monday.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour warned the public that infections will likely rise further, as Iran has improved its testing capabilities. The ministry has launched a website for the public to report suspected cases, alerting medical staff to administer tests.
The sultanate of Oman meanwhile announced it would halt all passenger flights beginning Sunday, although cargo flights would continue.
Saudi Arabia reported Tuesday that its virus cases jumped from 562 to 767, and included its first death.
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Aji reported from Damascus, Syria. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
ARTICLES BY SAMY MAGDY
Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies as he moved to shore up the cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers.
Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies as he moved to shore up the cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers.
Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies as he moved to shore up the cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers.