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Covid-19: Tunisia needs help, alerts WHO

2021-07-13T08:16:58.012Z


Tunisia has the "highest" Covid-19 death rate in the region, warned the representative of the World Health Organization ...


Tunisia has the "

highest

"

Covid-19 death

rate

in the region, warned the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), stressing that the situation is likely to worsen further in this country who needs help and vaccines.

"

Tunisia is the country which has the highest death rate of the entire African continent and the whole Arab world

," said Dr Yves Souteyrand, in an interview with AFP.

Read also: Covid-19: the crisis destroyed 114 million jobs in 2020 worldwide

It records “

more than 100 deaths a day

” in a country of 12 million people - “

that's really a lot,

” he says. The country, which saw only about 50 deaths from March to August 2020, is currently at more than 16,000 deaths, with records of 194, 189 or 144 new daily deaths recorded in recent days.

The gravity of the situation is even more obvious that "

Tunisia is more transparent in its data than many other countries

," he says, "

the number of deaths reported by Tunisia's probably closer to reality

”.

Beyond the statistical effect, "

the health situation is serious and all the indicators are red,

" he adds.

The incidence rate is "

very worrying

", explains the WHO representative, and "

the Delta variant, which is very contagious, is very present

" in Tunisia.

5% of the population fully vaccinated

The country suffers from a deep political crisis which disrupts decision-making and undermines citizens' confidence in the authorities.

Its public hospital system, which was a flagship for a long time, is weakened by years of mismanagement and lack of resources.

Several other factors have contributed to Tunisia arriving at this "

severe

"

situation

, underlines Dr Souteyrand.

Read also: Covid: WHO supports the 5 countries that have not started to vaccinate

In March 2020, Tunisia took early and strict measures, which enabled it to contain the pandemic - but at the cost of an effort that is difficult to renew. "

This had an extremely high economic and social impact, which means that the authorities subsequently managed a balance between the health response and the socio-economic response

", underlines Dr Souteyrand. Since then, the restrictions have remained limited. In addition, "

there was not enough concern among the population about the epidemic,

" he said. Tunisia “

risks having more difficult days

” during which “

the health system will continue to be very strained

”.

For the WHO representative, Tunisia "

should be helped, particularly in vaccines

", which the country has difficulty in obtaining because of the "

problem of availability

". Developed countries have reserved a large share of world production for themselves, and pledged donations have not materialized. Only 11% of the Tunisian population has had one dose, and 5% two doses, which is "

far from what it would take to have a collective immunity effect

," said Dr Souteyrand.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-07-13

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