Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday announced the extension of the state of emergency imposed across the country for another six months, reported CGTN Africa.
The state of emergency was first declared in November 2015 following a bomb attack on a bus of the presidential guards. It will now be imposed until January 19, 2022.
“President Saied decided to extend the state of emergency in the entire territory of the republic for a period of six months, starting from July 24, 2021, to Jan. 19, 2022,” said the Journal of the Republic of Tunisia (JORT).
JORT is a bi-weekly journal published by the Tunisian government in which information about all legislative events (laws and decrees), regulations, and official statements are published.
Tunisia is currently struggling hard to cope with surging numbers of COVID-19 cases, full intensive care units, and a lack of oxygen supplies in hospitals. The health situation in the country is overwhelming, with the pandemic causing more than 18,000 deaths in a population of around 12 million.
Tunisia has registered more than 558,000 COVID-19 cases and 18,052 deaths as of Friday. The government has already imposed a total lockdown on six regions and a partial lockdown in the capital. On Wednesday, President Saied ordered the army to take over managing the national COVID-19 pandemic response.
The situation is deteriorating even more due to the slow pace of the vaccination campaign. On Friday, the Tunisian government received more than a million doses of covid-19 vaccines and three tanks filled with liquefied oxygen from France.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, the French Secretary of State, said the vaccine doses will be enough to inoculate about 3,000 people in a day.
He said his government has supplied 624,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, including 324,000 via the Covax initiative, so far. He added that 500,000 doses of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be added to the list shortly.
