Tunis imposes lockdown as virus cases surge

TUNIS: Authorities have placed the Tunisian capital under a partial lockdown from Thursday in a bid to rein in record daily coronavirus cases and deaths.

Parties, sporting and cultural events and public prayers are banned until July 14 under the measures which cover Tunis and its surroundings, adding to similar measures in place for the coastal cities of Sousse and Monastir.

The measures announced late Wednesday also include an overnight curfew from 8:00pm until 5:00am and a ban on cafes and restaurants serving food except outdoors or by delivery.

Many Tunisian hospitals are at full capacity and medics say they are unable to cope.

Four inland regions of the North African country have also been under total lockdown since June 20 as cases have spiralled.

Adding to the sense of crisis, the army has been deployed in some areas to enforce lockdown measures.

The health ministry announced a record 5,921 cases and 116 deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, the latest figures available in the country of 12 million.

Tunisia has struggled with a lack of vaccines and has so far administered initial jabs to around 15 per cent of its population, with just over half a million receiving the full two doses.

Patients at the Ibn Jazzar Hospital of Kairouan’s overfilled COVID-19 ward are dying daily amid a spike in infections, with Kairouan and three other regions especially hard hit.

At the regional hospital, tensions mount as personnel try to cope with scarce means.

“I’m shocked,” said Sana Kraiem, whose mother was put in a wheelchair in a roomful of COVID-19 patients, “like a dog”, she described.

“They told me they can’t free up a bed occupied by a dead person,” a distressed Kraiem said in an interview.

The half-dozen rooms devoted to COVID-19 patients each packs in five or six beds.

A patient who recently died was seen still occupying one of the beds in each room visited. A special service eventually removes the body.

The Kairouan region is living through “a real horror movie,” Mohamed Rouis, the regional health director in Kairouan, was quoted saying in Tunisian media earlier this month.

The Ibn Jazzar hospital’s supervisor, Zohra Hedwej, explained that goodwill gestures by officials end up as frustrating half-measures, such as opening a section for coronavirus patients, without making provisions for medical staff.

“We resort to recruiting workers from other departments in the hospital,” Hedwej said.