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Tunisian hospitals face severe shortage of mortuary transport workers and mortuary refrigerators
Tunisian Prime Minister Hicham Al-Mashishi removed Health Minister Fawzi Mahdi from his post amid accusations about the performance of health services in the face of the Corona epidemic crisis, which has drained the country’s health system and the slowness of the vaccination campaign.
The Tunisian Prime Minister’s office issued a brief statement confirming the dismissal of the Minister of Health, without explaining the reasons, and the appointment of the Minister of Social Affairs, Mohamed Trabelsi, to his interim post.
The dismissal of Fawzi Mahdi came days after the ministry spokeswoman announced that the health situation was stressful, the epidemic having caused the death of more than 17,000 people out of a population of 12 million people.
The dismissal decision comes after the crisis caused by the launch by the Ministry of Health of a vaccination campaign against the Corona virus and the opening of temporary centers to vaccinate all Tunisians over 18 on Tuesday and Wednesday, in the occasion of Eid al blessed. -Adha.
The announcement resulted in a crowd and a scramble in 29 vaccination centers, where thousands of citizens rushed to receive the vaccine, and vaccine stocks quickly ran out.
The ministry said it would continue the campaign in the coming days, but then withdrew and limited the supply of vaccines to those over 40 on Wednesday to avoid another crowd.
Mehdi’s impeachment is further proof of the instability of a government that has seen several ministers resign due to tensions with Parliament and President Kais Saied, as well as deep divisions.
published photo, GETTY IMAGE
There is an exchange of accusations over the performance of health services in Tunisia in the crisis of the Corona epidemic
In January, President Saeed prevented a cabinet reshuffle, meaning the government now includes transitional ministers who are handling multiple files.
Tunisians have lived through a decade of political turmoil and economic crisis since the overthrow of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali following a popular revolution in 2011, which brought about the collapse of vital public services.
Hospitals nationwide have faced a severe oxygen shortage coupled with a shortage of ICU staff and beds, prompting many countries including Egypt, the Gulf States, France, former colonial power and even financially crippled Mauritania, to send medical aid to Tunisia.
“race against time”
Tunisia has struggled to launch a vaccination campaign against the Corona virus, in which less than a million people were fully vaccinated, or around eight percent of the population. This is a relatively low vaccination rate and insufficient to curb the spread of the epidemic in the country, although it is one of the highest rates in Africa.
The director general of the National Office for Family and Human Town Planning in Tunisia, Dr Rafla Taj Al-Dallaji, in a vaccination center in the center of the capital, Tunis, called the campaign a “race against time” , and said the country needs more than double the current vaccination rate to cut the current chain of transmission of the virus.
published photo, GETTY IMAGE
The health ministry said private field hospitals were no longer enough.
According to official statistics, Tunisia recorded 117 new deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday, in addition to 2,520 new cases, bringing the total of recorded cases to more than half a million.
Bodies were piled up in some hospitals, and some of them remained in rooms next to patients for up to 24 hours, due to the lack of sufficient refrigerators to hold the dead, as well as the severe shortage of staff. who carried the bodies.
The Health Ministry’s Facebook page reported that the private field hospitals that had been set up in recent months were no longer sufficient.
Faced with these developments, Libya closed its border with Tunisia in early July and suspended joint flights due to the growing number of victims.
Since June 20, the authorities have imposed a complete closure of six neighborhoods and announced a partial closure in the capital.
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