“Tunisia needs help” ahead of Covid-19, said Dr Yves Souteyrand, WHO representative on the ground. The country with only 12 million people registers more than 100 deaths per day, the highest death rate on the African continent and in the Arab world.
Tunisia is one of the countries that transmits the most information about Covid-19 to the WHO, which explains the higher level of warning than for its neighbors. However, the country is in a very worrying situation with more than 100 deaths per day, a total of 16,000, while until August 2020 it was not even 50.
According to Dr. Yves Souteyrand, representative of the World Health Organization, this explosion in the number of deaths and hospital stays can be explained by the abolition of the strict measures that had been taken very early last year. Measures that were not extended by the authorities due to their very important socio-economic consequences.
On the vaccination side, Tunisia is still average compared to its neighbors, but still too small to contain the spread of the Delta variant. Only 11% of the population has had one dose and 5% two doses.
In response to the WHO’s call for help, France has announced the delivery of more than one million doses of vaccines and the necessary medical equipment. At the same time, Paris has also limited travel between the two countries and placed Tunisia on its red list of risk areas.
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