Tunisian Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi has warned of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic over a new surge in infections and deaths.
He said the country has witnessed a spike in hospitalizations with COVID-19, in addition to recording 144 cases of the UK strain in 16 states.
Mehdi noted a 19 percent increase in the positive test ratios, prompting stricter measures, such as lockdowns in certain areas and shutting schools.
He warned of a third wave of the pandemic, stressing the importance of adhering to all the precautionary measures to prevent the health system from collapsing.
The Health Ministry has recently recorded 1,623 new COVID-19 cases, 47 deaths and 449 recoveries.
These figures raised the infection tally in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 256, 931 cases with 8,890 deaths, including 218,377 recoveries.
Public and private health institutions have been treating 1,381 patients, 336 of whom are in ICUs, including 109 on ventilators.
Assistant Director of the National Union of Health Professionals Alaeddine Rouissi said none of the healthcare workers will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which Tunisia had received 98,400 doses.
In a press statement, Rouissi explained that the vaccine’s efficacy is questioned, especially after recording many deaths and blood clotting cases among those vaccinated in many European countries and in Britain, the country of origin.
Tunisia has so far received three shipments of COVID-19 vaccines. The first contained 30,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V, after which it received 93,600 doses of the American-German Pfizer-BioNTech jab as part of the COVAX initiative. The country has also been delivered 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
