The Tunisian government on Wednesday announced it has decided to impose a new two-week curfew across the country to curb the spread of the latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic following recommendations by the government’s scientific committee, the presidency said in a statement, reported France 24.
The Tunisian health authorities announced the country’s first case of the highly-infectious Omicron coronavirus strain in early December, forcing governments to impose fresh measures. There has been an explosion of cases in January, topping 4,800 a day on Monday, along with 11 deaths fuelled by the Omicron variant.
“The curfew will be in effect from Thursday for a period of two weeks renewable, depending on the epidemiological situation in the country,” the statement said.
It added that the curfew timings will be from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
In addition, the Tunisian government has also put a ban on all public gatherings indoors and outdoors. All cultural and sports events have been canceled or postponed until further notice.
The government has made it mandatory for people to wear a mask in all public places in addition to the continued observance of preventive and hygiene measures, namely physical distancing, ventilation, and hand washing.
The Tunisian government has also recommended the vaccine passport, the national vaccination campaign particularly the inoculation of the Covid-19 booster dose. It has also recommended people postpone any travel to countries experiencing a severe situation.
Meanwhile, Tunisia registered 4,865 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of cases to 749,832. The death toll rose by 11 to 25,707, while the total number of recoveries hit 700,004.
About six million Tunisians are now fully inoculated, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In related news, major political parties of Tunisia have said they will go ahead with protests marking the anniversary of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, despite the curfew.
