“All indicators are red” in Tunisia. The country is overwhelmed by the Covid-19 health crisis, according to the World Health Organization. We apologize for more than one hundred daily deaths and a total of 16,000 deaths. The highest mortality rate on the entire continent and in the Arab world. Health infrastructures, notoriously underprivileged, are overwhelmed and the country is relying more than ever on international support to cope.
Several countries have already answered the call. France put Tunisia on the red list on Tuesday (July 13) before announcing the imminent dispatch of more than 300,000 doses of vaccines and medical equipment. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, the United States, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have also sent or promised material support to Tunisian hospitals. A call for help was also sent to the Tunisian diaspora, via the diplomatic network, and massively disseminated on social networks by the Tunisians very aware of the decline in their health systems.
A breathless health system
The system “collapsed”, even a spokesman for the Ministry of Health admitted, before dismissing it. Hospitals, whether public or private, are currently saturated. But the lack of resources allocated to the public health care system has been obvious since the pandemic began. Tunisians still remember this young surgeon, Badreddine Aloui, who died last year when a faulty lift fell on a hospital in the northwestern part of the country. This incident had led to a protest movement among medical staff.
In addition to the lack of material resources – oxygen concentrators, masks, gloves – hospitals lack weapons. Doctors and nurses are exhausted and will not be replaced. There are not enough specialists in resuscitation and anesthesia. It is also the rejection of this system in ruins that accelerates the departure of hundreds of doctors every year and thus creates a vicious circle.
A too slow vaccination campaign
5% of the population is vaccinated, a proportion that is too far from the government’s goal of vaccinating three million people by the end of June. This slowness can be explained by the delay that the authorities took in preparing the necessary legislative basis, which led to the campaign not starting until March last year. Like other countries on the continent, Tunisia suffers delays in delivering the doses promised under the global COVAX initiative. We must add to this a stuttering government communication to the Tunisians who are still partly suspicious of the vaccine, even careless in the face of the danger. Finally, the lack of staff to carry out vaccinations complements the darker picture of this tedious vaccination campaign.
Against drastic containment?
According to the Tunisian Scientific Council, only a general containment of several weeks can drastically reduce the figures. But the country’s economic situation prevents the country from repeating the operation. 1.5 million Tunisians work in the informal sector. In Kairouan, more than half of the population lives on less than five dinars a day, or the equivalent of 1.50 euros. In late June, the government decided on a one-week public containment to respond to the state of health. the beginning of the tourist season. Now on the red lists in several countries, Tunisia can give up an economic recovery made possible by the reception of tourists this summer.
A latent economic crisis
And there are fewer and fewer resources for an already bloodless and heavily indebted state. Tunisia must repay EUR 4.5 billion by the end of the year to its creditors, especially abroad, and must still find enough to complete a budget for 2021, necessarily affected by crisis management. The $ 3.3 billion agreement with the IMF is still in limbo due to a lack of political agreement and the necessary equivalents. Among these the reduction of wage costs in the public service.
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