Tunisia grapples with COVID-19

Tunisia is seeing more coronavirus cases — last week, between 3,500 and 4,000 new infections were reported daily. Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi also contracted the virus in a country with little testing, and where many hospitals are overwhelmed by the many COVID-19 patients.

A night-time curfew has been in place nationwide since October 2020. Depending on the incidence rate, the government has also imposed lockdowns for cities and regions, sealing them off from the outside world, like in the northeastern city of Manouba (photo). Beja, Silyana, Zaghouan and Kairouan report the highest incidence rates.

Kairouan is located about 150 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tunis. With well over 400 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, the city of about 120,000 inhabitants has one of the country's highest infection rates at present. The square in front of the mosque is normally crowded and bustling with activity. But Kairouan is currently sealed off and looks more like a ghost town.

Only a few street vendors and stores selling necessary goods remain open. Ambulances are omnipresent, transporting COVID-19 patients to various hospitals in Kairouan.

Kairouan has grappled with high infection levels for weeks. The hospitals in the city have been overwhelmed, and special COVID-19 wards were not readily available everywhere. In the meantime, such units have been set up to make sure coronvirus patients are kept far away from regular patients.

Thinning medical personnel: Some doctors and members of the already scarce nursing staff have also become infected with the virus. Some patients have to be supplied with oxygen until a hospital bed can be found for them in another city.

At present, 8 to 10 people die of COVID-19 every day in Kairouan. According to official figures, almost 15,000 people have died in Tunisia since the beginning of the pandemic.

Doctors and nurses work round the clock. The Health Ministry, which urges the population to comply with coronavirus measures, said 18 people have been identified so far as having contracted the more contagious COVID-19 delta variant. Seven of them, including children, live in Kairouan, according to a ministry statement.

The vaccination campaign in Tunisia is making slow progress. Fewer than 1.8 million of the country's about 11.5 million inhabitants have been vaccinated so far; only about 500,000 of them have received full vaccination protection, according to the Tunisian Health Ministry. It looks doubtful, however, that the country will manage to vaccinate half the population this year as planned.