Tunisian government announces new health restrictions to combat Covid-19. The country regrets a resumption of the spread of the virus since September, and fears are now seeing an already fragile health system completely overwhelmed.
“The epidemiological situation requires firmness and urgent solutions,” Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said on Saturday evening, October 3, on national television. All gatherings, all demonstrations are banned for the next two weeks. The administrations will work in shifts to limit the traffic load.
No general re-inclusion
On the other hand is one new general containment as what was imposed in the spring is not on the agenda. The country “no longer has the capacity to carry it,” the prime minister confirmed.
It will therefore be up to the regional authorities to determine local barriers or closure of places of worship depending on the individual situation. As in the coastal regions of Sousse and Monastir, where curfews have already been imposed since Thursday.
A struggling health system
It must be said that the Tunisian health system is struggling with more than 20,000 cases confirmed to date, including nearly 300 deaths. According to Dr. Hechmi Louzir, director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis and spokesman for the scientific committee for the fight against Covid-19, “Capacities have not yet reached saturation, but we are beginning to have small concerns in Greater Tunis and around Sousse”
To cope with this, the government promises an increase in the number of intensive care beds by November, but first and foremost reiterates the call for respect for barrier movements and the obligation to wear a mask.
.
