English abstract
COVID-19 has substantially impacted the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), home to nearly 700 million people across 22 diverse countries. Since the first reported confirmed case in January, 2020, 3611352 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 91738 deaths were reported in the region as of Nov 17, 2020.1 Most countries saw fairly slow transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the early months of the pandemic but in May, as social measures, such as restrictions and partial or full lockdowns, were relaxed during the holy month of Ramadan, disease transmission accelerated.2,3 After a small reduction in the summer, cases increased in late August as disease surged in countries, such as Jordan and Tunisia, where transmission had been low earlier in the year and resurged in other countries, such as Bahrain and Oman.
