WHO: Tunisia Over Worst of Covid Wave

Patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) receive treatment at the emergency department of Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) receive treatment at the emergency department of Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
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WHO: Tunisia Over Worst of Covid Wave

Patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) receive treatment at the emergency department of Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) receive treatment at the emergency department of Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui

Tunisia -- which has seen the world's worst Covid-19 death toll -- may be over the peak of the latest wave but the government must still speed up inoculations, the WHO said on Monday.

"The epidemiological data are going in the right direction," World Health Organization representative in Tunisia Yves Souteyrand told a press conference.

"We have the feeling that the peak of the epidemic may have passed."

But with vaccines in short supply, overwhelmed hospitals, shortages of oxygen and the highly contagious Delta variant rampaging through the country's 12 million population mean the risk of a health disaster remains, the WHO warned.

The Delta variant was responsible for "more than 90 percent" of cases, and the impact of family gatherings during a recent religious holiday was hard to evaluate but could set back progress made, Souteyrand said.

"The challenge is to speed up the vaccination campaign," he said.

The country had "in 10 days received around seven million vaccine doses and will receive perhaps two or three million more" soon, he said.

The WHO has also provided 400 oxygen concentrators and four oxygen generators to Tunisia, where the government has been in crisis after President Kais Saied suspended parliament and took direct power.

Since the shock move late last month, Saied has established a coronavirus crisis unit, supervised by a high-level military official, to help manage the country's outbreak.

Souteyrand said that "relations between the WHO and the health ministry have not been affected by the political crisis".

The health ministry on Monday announced the start of a mobile vaccination campaign in several regions.

Authorities have also announced a vaccination drive across the country on Sunday for Tunisians aged over 40.

Over the past seven days, the North African country has registered the worst official Covid-19 mortality rate in the world, with 10.64 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, an AFP tally based on officially reported data shows.

On the other hand, Tunisia shares its coronavirus data more transparently than many other countries, the WHO said.



US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

 A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

 A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

The US on Monday eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after opposition factions ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month.

The US Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

The move does not lift sanctions on the nation that has been battered by more than a decade of war, but indicates a limited show of US support for the new transitional government.

The general license underscores America's commitment to ensuring its sanctions “do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” a Treasury Department statement reads.

Since Assad's ouster, representatives from the nation's new de facto authorities have said that the new Syria will be inclusive and open to the world.

The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaeda, and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster. The US and UN have long designated HTS as a terrorist organization.

HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.

Much of the world ended diplomatic relations with Assad because of his crackdown on protesters, and sanctioned him and his Russian and Iranian associates.

Syria’s infrastructure has been battered, with power cuts rampant in the country and some 90% of its population living in poverty. About half the population won’t know where its next meal will come from, as inflation surges.

The pressure to lift sanctions has mounted in recent years as aid agencies continue to cut programs due to donor fatigue and a massive 2023 earthquake that rocked Syria and Türkiye. The tremor killed over 59,000 people and destroyed critical infrastructure that couldn’t be fixed due to sanctions and overcompliance, despite the US announcing some humanitarian exemptions.