Tunisia on Friday announced it will extend until June 27 its restrictions to fight the pandemic in an effort to control recently rising coronavirus cases.
Government spokesperson Hasna Ben Slimene said after a meeting of the national committee to combat the pandemic that the curfew between 10 pm and 5 am will remain.
“The health protocol in cafés and restaurants will be maintained with capacity restrictions of 30% indoors and 50% outdoors,” Ben Slimene said.
Health Ministry spokesperson Nissaf Ben Alaya highlighted the increase in the number of COVID-19 infections, adding that the pandemic alert level is very high in 21 out of 24 governorates. "Incoming passengers are required to present a negative PCR test," she said.
Head of the steering committee of the vaccination campaign Hechmi Louzir made reassurances that the vaccination campaign will accelerate from July.
He stressed that health centers will join the vaccination program, noting that teams will travel to rural areas to vaccinate people not registered on the evax platform.
Louzir said private pharmacies could also participate in the vaccination campaign.
"About 3 million Pfizer vaccines will be delivered to Tunisia as part of direct state purchases and 4.3 million doses as part of the Covax initiative. Some 600,000 doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have already been received," he said.
Also, 500,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine will be delivered to Tunisia, including 300,000 doses in June and the rest in July.
The head of the steering committee of the vaccination campaign added that from June, Tunisia will receive 460,000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine, in addition to 1.5 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson jab under the African Union initiative.
Tunisia recorded 46 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll in the African country to 12,839, the Health Ministry said Friday.
It added that 1,576 infections were registered from 6,223 conducted tests (25.33% positivity rate), pushing the infection caseload to 350,487.
