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New Covid-19 infections in the Middle East and North Africa averaged just under 28,000 a day during December, bringing the total since the pandemic began to almost five million, according to official figures.
Across the region as a whole, this represents a modest fall in new cases compared with November, which was the worst month so far.
The list below shows the daily average of new cases reported during December by each of the 20 countries monitored:
| Iran Morocco Israel Jordan Palestine Lebanon Iraq Tunisia UAE Egypt Libya Algeria Kuwait Sudan Bahrain Saudi Oman Qatar Syria Yemen |
8,710 2,694 2,688 2,541 1,849 1,647 1,420 1,321 1,237 681 565 551 254 191 182 177 169 160 114 1 |
The overall month-on-month fall is mainly accounted for by fewer new cases in Iran, Jordan, Morocco and Iraq, as can be seen from the list below. At the same time, though, Israel, Palestine and Egypt reported significant increases and there are signs that Egypt is entering a second wave.
Daily average of new cases in December compared with November
| Israel Palestine Egypt Sudan Lebanon Tunisia Syria UAE Bahrain Yemen Qatar Oman Libya Saudi Algeria Kuwait Iraq Morocco Jordan Iran |
+1,945 +780 +409 +71 +66 +47 +44 +29 +5 0 -50 -133 -162 -165 -268 -316 -1,240 -1,922 -2,293 -2,750 |
The list below gives some indication of the scale of the epidemic in invidual countries, in relation to their population:
Recorded cases per 100,000 population (cumulative)
| Bahrain Qatar Israel Kuwait Palestine Jordan Lebanon Oman UAE Iraq Libya Iran Morocco Tunisia Saudi Algeria Egypt Syria Sudan Yemen |
5,342 5,129 4,558 3,495 2,986 2,865 2,618 2,490 2,071 1,462 1,444 1,442 1,178 1,155 1,034 224 132 64 53 7 |
However, the number of confirmed cases is also partly determined by levels of testing. It's easier in small countries to test a high proportion of the population. Thus while tiny Bahrain appears to be the most infected country in the region, it is unlikely to have many undetected cases. The number of tests carried out in Bahrain exceeds the number of people (due to repeat testing).
In countries with low levels of testing, on the other hand, the situation may be a lot worse than the official figures suggest because many infections go undetected. In Yemen, for example, testing is almost non-existent.
Covid-19 tests per 100,000 population
| UAE Bahrain Israel Qatar Saudi Jordan Lebanon Kuwait Palestine Morocco Iraq Oman Iran Libya Tunisia Egypt Yemen Algeria Sudan Syria |
211,412 137,234 88,043 44,459 31,490 31,250 29,496 29,279 17,247 12,049 11,282 11,054 9,074 7,936 5,221 968 58 (Unavailable) (Unavailable) (Unavailable) |
Overall, death rates in the region appear (as recorded in official figures) appear relatively low. To some extent, that is to be expected because of the demographics: Arab countries tend to have a high proportion of young people who are less likely to die from the virus. In most of them, though, it's also unclear what criteria are being used for attributing deaths to Covid-19. In some countries (see Iraq and Yemen, for example) there is resistance to recording deaths as due to Covid-19 because of social stigma.
Recorded deaths per 100,000 population
| Iran Tunisia Jordan Israel Iraq Palestine Oman Kuwait Lebanon Libya Bahrain Morocco Saudi Qatar Egypt UAE Algeria Syria Sudan Yemen |
65 40 38 36 32 30 29 22 22 21 20 20 18 9 7 7 6 4 3 2 |
The graphs below show the average number of daily new infections recorded in each country, week by week since the beginning of March 2020. The underlying data can be found in this spreadsheet. For more packground and analysis see: Diary of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Middle East.
ALGERIA
For more information see: Covid-19 in Algeria
BAHRAIN
For more information see: Covid-19 in Bahrain
EGYPT
For more information see: Covid-19 in Egypt
IRAN
IRAQ
For more information see: Covid-19 in Iraq
ISRAEL
For more information see: Covid-19 in Israel
JORDAN
For more information see: Covid-19 in Jordan
KUWAIT
For more information see: Covid-19 in Kuwait
LEBANON
For more information see: Covid-19 in Lebanon
LIBYA
For more information see: Covid-19 in Libya
MOROCCO
For more information see: Covid-19 in Morocco
OMAN
For more information see: Covid-19 in Oman
PALESTINE
For more information see: Covid-19 in Palestine
QATAR
For more information see: Covid-19 in Qatar
SAUDI ARABIA
For more information see: Covid-19 in Saudi Arabia
SUDAN
For more information see: Covid-19 in Sudan
SYRIA
For more information see: Covid-19 in Syria
TUNISIA
For more information see: Covid-19 in Tunisia
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
For more information see: Covid-19 in the UAE
YEMEN
For more information see: Covid-19 in Yemen
