Tunisia Reports Drop in COVID-19 Infections Amid High Inoculation Rates

Part of an intensive inoculation campaign in a school in Tunisia on September 11, 2021. (EPA)
Part of an intensive inoculation campaign in a school in Tunisia on September 11, 2021. (EPA)
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Tunisia Reports Drop in COVID-19 Infections Amid High Inoculation Rates

Part of an intensive inoculation campaign in a school in Tunisia on September 11, 2021. (EPA)
Part of an intensive inoculation campaign in a school in Tunisia on September 11, 2021. (EPA)

Tunisia did not record any new coronavirus-related deaths on October 11, for the first time in months as the country continues its vaccination drive, the health ministry announced on Wednesday.

The last few weeks saw a remarkable drop in death rates from COVID-19 complications compared with more than 250 daily fatalities in July and August.

Infections fell by an estimated 4.8 percent and did not exceed the limit of 230 new cases per day, the ministry added.

The total number of deaths recorded since the beginning of the pandemic is 25,046 and 682,953 recoveries.

The number of patients admitted to health institutions in the public and private sectors dropped to 689, including 13 new cases.

There are currently about 141 cases in intensive care units, while only 53 patients are on ventilators.

According to Riadh Daghfous, head of the scientific committee for the fight against the coronavirus, Tunisia is witnessing a gradual decline in COVID-related deaths thanks to the high rates of vaccination.

More than four million Tunisians have taken both shots, he affirmed, hoping they will reach five million by the end of October.

The ministry urged Tunisians, who haven’t gotten their jabs yet, to get vaccinated.



EU Top Diplomat Has ‘No More Words’ on Middle East Suffering

A displaced Palestinian woman carries her belongings as she flees Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip walk on the main Salah al-Din road on November 17, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian woman carries her belongings as she flees Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip walk on the main Salah al-Din road on November 17, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
TT

EU Top Diplomat Has ‘No More Words’ on Middle East Suffering

A displaced Palestinian woman carries her belongings as she flees Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip walk on the main Salah al-Din road on November 17, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian woman carries her belongings as she flees Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip walk on the main Salah al-Din road on November 17, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The European Union's outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday he had "no more words" to describe the situation in the Middle East, before chairing his last planned meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.  

"I exhausted the words to explain what's happening in the Middle East," Borrell told reporters, barely concealing his frustration at the EU's failure to weigh on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his five-year mandate.  

"There are no more words," he said. "It's about 44,000 people killed in Gaza, the whole area is being destroyed, and 70 percent of the people being killed are women or children."

"The most frequent ages of casualties are children below nine years old," said the 77-year-old foreign policy chief.

Borrell confirmed he would urge ministers Monday to suspend a political dialogue with Israel -- part of a wider agreement governing trade ties -- over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.  

But the proposal is expected to be given short shrift by numerous member states including key powers France and Germany, as well as Italy and the Netherlands.  

Since Israel unleashed its devastating offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the EU's member states have been deeply divided over the conflict.  

Borrell has often been an outlier in denouncing what he views as Israel's excesses.  

On Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Borrell likewise voiced his frustration at the shortcomings in the European response as the conflict on its doorstep reaches its 1,000th day.  

"Too many times we haven't been united. Too many times discussions took too long," Borrell said.  

"My last call to my colleagues will be: Be more united, take decisions quicker," he said. "Russia is not stopping the war because you are thinking about it."  

"You cannot pretend to be a geopolitical power if you are taking days and weeks and months to reach agreements in order to act," warned Borrell, who is due to hand over to his designated successor, former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, in December.