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The representative of the World Health Organization, Yves Soteran, announced that Tunisia records the “highest” number of deaths in the Arab region and the African continent and is going through a “difficult situation” which is likely to worsen, and therefore the country needs help. and vaccines.
“Tunisia has the highest death rate on the African continent and the Arab world,” Soteran said in an interview with Agence France-Presse, adding that “more than 100 deaths per day are recorded in a country of about 12 million people. That’s really a lot. “
Tunisia managed to overcome the first wave and contain the epidemic between March and August 2020, and the death rate at that time reached around 50. But the death toll has now reached more than 16,000, and records have been set with 194, 189 and 134 deaths per day in recent days.
He stressed that Tunisia “is more transparent in the publication of data from other countries, and the number of deaths it publishes is undoubtedly close to reality”.
The head of the organization’s office in Tunisia confirmed that “the health situation is serious, and all indicators are red”. He attributed this to the spread of the virus across the country, which is “extremely worrying”, and “the spread of the highly contagious and densely present Delta mutant.”
Some Tunisian states “are today witnessing a very worrying epidemiological situation, such as what happened in Kairouan (center), Siliana (center) and Béja (north-west), in addition to Tataouine (south) and Kasserine (center).
difficult days
The country is going through a political crisis that affects decision-making and Tunisians’ confidence in the authorities in power. In addition, the public health sector, which was the pride of Tunisians, today suffers from poor management and a lack of equipment and supplies.
The official believes that many other factors have contributed to Tunisia’s arrival in this “very difficult” situation.
Tunisia imposed strict and preventive measures in March 2020, which allowed it to control the epidemiological situation for a while, but the price to pay was high.
The representative of the World Health Organization said: “This had a very important economic and social impact, which subsequently led the authorities to act according to a balance between the response to the health situation and the economic situation. and social “.
Since then, the health restrictions imposed have been limited. “In addition, there is not enough appreciation of the epidemic on the part of the population,” he added.
The expert warned: “The Delta version is spreading widely today”, adding: “We can consider that we have not yet reached the epidemiological peak, neither in number of cases nor in number of deaths”. “Tunisia faces the possibility of going through difficult days, during which the health system will be very necessary,” he said.
He added: “The human resources working in the Covid services are exhausted and their staff is insufficient. There are few specializations in public hospitals, particularly in intensive care and anesthesia … The health system is unable to meet the large demands for care. “
“(Tunisia) must be helped, especially with vaccines, which the country is having difficulty obtaining because of the problem of their availability,” added the official.
Developed countries have allocated large quotas of vaccines and pledges announced have not been kept. 11% of the Tunisian population received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 5% received a full vaccination, and “this is less than what is needed to achieve group immunity”, according to the official.
In terms of vaccination, Tunisia comes “much after Morocco … it is close to Jordan, tied with Lebanon, better than Egypt, Algeria and Libya, and better than most countries in the world. ‘Southern Africa’. The goal, said Soteran, is “to ensure that at least 20% of the population has access to vaccines”.
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