• Until then used to managing small waves of coronavirus, Tunisia must for the first time since the start of the pandemic face a peak in contamination linked to the Delta variant.

  • The health disaster in which the country is plunged is attributed by the experts to a lack of anticipation of the government, but especially a lack of means of the public health sector which has been in bad shape for years.

  • However, the situation seems to be changing in recent days thanks in particular to the mobilization of the Tunisian diaspora, associations and international aid.

Since the beginning of July, Tunisia has been completely overwhelmed by the explosion of coronavirus cases. “The situation is dramatic. In some cities, we have contamination rates which have never been reached in Europe and which are, moreover, probably distorted because too few people are tested, ”explains Dr Alexandre Mbazaa, head of the anesthesia department. resuscitation at the AP-HP and co-founder of the CoviDar association which helps patients with Covid-19 in Tunisia.

Public hospitals are overwhelmed and lack as much resources as they do staff.

"The head of emergency at the Sousse hospital (north-east of the country) tells me that every day, the nursing staff impatiently awaits the arrival of the truck that delivers the oxygen," reports Alexandre Mbazaa.

Stuck in this health crisis, the Tunisian state was forced to appeal for national solidarity.

A first for this country which had until then been spared by the coronavirus crisis, facing only small ripples, quickly contained by the closing of the borders.

While most of the current contaminations are linked to the highly contagious Delta variant, the country's health crisis cannot be entirely blamed on it.

"The public health sector is in a sorry state"

“Contrary to what we can hear, this situation is not linked to the Tunisian revolution of 2011. Hospitals in Tunisia, a country with a strong administration, were already suffering long before the Covid or the revolution, maintains Aude -Annabelle Canesse, public policy advisor, specializing in Maghreb countries, with a focus on Tunisia. The public health sector has been in terrible shape for a very long time. The outbreak has shed light on existing problems, as well as the lack of political anticipation, a year after the virus first appeared. “Thus, last week, only 5% of the population was fully vaccinated, while health experts suggest vaccination coverage of 80% of the population to avoid a wave linked to the Delta variant.

But for the author of the book

Development policies in Tunisia

 : participation and governance under the Ben Ali era

, Tunisia is also playing bad luck.

"As in 2011 with the repercussions of the international crisis, the country must once again face external factors (here the Covid) in a context of economic and political fragility", explains the expert while acknowledging that these last ten years , “The health sector has not been among the government's priorities”.

The associations mobilized

Faced with this situation, the associations are mobilizing. Created last December, CoviDar coordinates and offers care to Tunisians sick with covid at home in order to decongest the country's hospitals. “We have already come to the aid of more than 2,600 patients and we have allowed 98% of them to seek treatment at home,” reports Alexandre Mbazaa, whose association now covers eight regions of the country.

In addition, several associations of the Tunisian diaspora in France have joined forces and launched campaigns to collect donations.

“We have already collected nearly 96,000 euros.

With this money we have just bought medical equipment to set up field hospitals in disaster areas of Tunisia where the infrastructure is already suffering a lot.

This heavy and light equipment will be dispatched tomorrow, ”reports Chahira Mehouachi, vice-president of the ATUGE group of associations.

The latter collaborate with the Tunisian Embassy in France which for its part urged Tunisians residing in France to make "donations in kind - medical and paramedical equipment and material - or in monetary form".

The vaccine campaign finally launched

If the situation is changing in Tunisia in recent days, it is also thanks to international aid. “The vaccines are coming. Yesterday Tunisia received 300,000 from France, reports Alexandre Mbazaa. The Tunisian government has set up vaccinodromes and set up mobile teams able to go and vaccinate the inhabitants of remote villages. According to the latest figures released on Monday, 8% of the population was vaccinated. "This is the only solution that will make it possible to get out of the crisis and in the long term to prevent clusters from forming again," insists the head of the anesthesia-resuscitation department at AP-HP.

However, international aid has its downside for Aude-Annabelle Canesse, who points to a geopolitical risk.

“Many countries are rushing to come to the aid of Tunisia, but it is never disinterested because it is a geographically strategic country.

There is a risk of future interference which could create divisions and destabilization of the country.

This recent aid has so far enabled the authorities to open vaccination to all adults in Tunisia on Tuesday and Wednesday, religious feast days.

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  • Health

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

  • epidemic

  • Tunisia

  • Tunis