Tunisia, which has been facing a serious health crisis for several months, carried out an intense vaccination campaign against Covid-19 this Sunday during an “open house” day, after having obtained more than six million doses from Arab and Western countries.
551,008 people over 40 years old, housed in 335 centers, were vaccinated on this occasion, an initiative of President Kaïs Saïed, announced the Ministry of Health. The crowd was packed in the middle of the day. At 1 in the afternoon, 302,751 had received a dose of vaccine, according to the monitoring unit of the Ministry of Health.
President Saïed granted himself full powers on July 25 after a frenzy exacerbated by a deadly epidemic spike, which angered Tunisians against the “incompetence” of the previous government and an Assembly monopolized by their infighting. Since then, he has created a crisis unit to manage the health crisis, supervised by a high-ranking soldier.
“In fifteen days more than six million doses have been delivered and, in the next few days, more than two million doses are expected and then another four million more,” Kaïs Saïed said on Thursday, in a video released by the presidency. The head of state urged his compatriots to get mass vaccinated. “Don’t hesitate for a moment,” he said.
At the end of its vaccination campaign, Tunisia has been hit hard by the Delta variant: since March, the number of deaths from coronavirus has more than doubled to more than 20,000. Officially, this country of 11 million people now has one of the worst death rates in the world linked to the pandemic. With the millions of doses of vaccine that have been spilled after donations in recent weeks, Tunisia officially hopes to vaccinate around 50% of its population by mid-October.
A first “open house” day organized at the last minute in late July ended with a disorderly avalanche of vaccines. It had cost the then Minister of Health his position, highlighting the government’s lack of strategy in the face of Covid-19. About two million people have received a first dose of the vaccine since the campaign began in March.
