Tunisia Sees ‘Horizontal Growth’ in COVID-19 Cases

Arab World

August 19th, 9:25am

Tunis - Mongi Saidani

Passengers arriving at Tunis Airport are checked by thermal scanners for coronavirus symptoms (Reuters)

Tunisia has recorded 983 COVID-19 cases, 424 out of them imported and 559 locally transmitted, in addition to six deaths, since opening the Tunisian border on June 27. The horizontal growth of coronavirus cases pushed the country to declare an open war against the pandemic in several governorates. Contact tracing showed that 85 percent of the patients are asymptomatic, hindering the containment of the disease. Total deaths reached 56, knowing that it remained fixed at 50 for a couple of consecutive months. Tunisia recorded 78 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, 71 from local transmission and seven imported, which brought the total to 2,185, the Tunisian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday. Member of Tunisia's National Anti-corruption Commission Dr. Samir Abdelmoumen described the increase as “frightening” especially in regions that saw a horizontal growth in infections, such as Gabes. Abdelmoumen said the situation can be reversed if parties respected the precautionary measures. Commenting on the possibility of imposing a full lockdown or closing the borders, he ruled out such measures.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2456981/tunisia-sees-%E2%80%98horizontal-growth%E2%80%99-covid-19-cases