Tunisia approves new "anti-COVID" vaccination plan amid political crisis

Tunisia has managed to break an all-time record for vaccinations. In just one day, more than half a million citizens have received the vaccine against COVID-19, in a new measure implemented by Tunisian President Kais Saied to tackle the complicated health situation that the country is going through.

Tunisia has launched an ambitious vaccination plan against the coronavirus in a programme that is expected to vaccinate more than one million people over the age of 40 in less than a day, compared to official vaccination figures of around 30,000 and 60,000 respectively. In this regard, Saied has assigned the army to supervise the vaccination campaign in more than 300 centres set up for the plan.

The Tunisian authorities are working to ensure that 50 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated by mid-October. The government has announced that "more than 6 million doses were provided in 15 days and 4 million additional doses will be available later". In this context, countries such as Morocco and the United Arab Emirates have provided health aid to Tunisia, from sending thousands of doses of vaccines to medical supplies to try to ease the pressure on the country's hospitals.

Saied has encouraged the Tunisian population to attend vaccination appointments in a televised speech in which the president defended vaccines as a means to "return life in Tunisia to normal", and has made buses available to citizens to facilitate access to health centres.

"Don't hesitate for a moment and accept the vaccine," said the president in a call that managed to exponentially increase the number of people who came to get vaccinated. This was reflected in local media after showing images of long queues of citizens waiting for their turn in front of vaccination centres in several regions of the country.

The president's announcement had a significant effect on the population, as a series of open days organised by the Ministry of Health for vaccinations were held, and the health ministry, together with civil organisations and hundreds of citizen volunteers, managed to vaccinate more than half a million inhabitants in an orderly fashion. In a press release, the Health Ministry informed that the final results of the intensive vaccination operations in all the provinces of the Republic amounted to 551,008 people vaccinated.

The country, with a population of 12 million, has recorded the highest number of coronavirus deaths on the African continent. In this context, more than 20,000 Tunisians have died from the spread of the virus and so far little more than 8% of the population has been vaccinated. These dramatic figures led to the dismissal of the Minister of Health, Fauzi Mahdi, who announced a vaccination plan for the over-18s that ended in failure and was branded "anarchic" by the government. 
 

These new measures taken by the president come amid a turbulent climate. Less than a month ago, Saied assumed full governmental powers in the face of a wave of protests in the country's streets against the Tunisian government and its policies, particularly in the health sector. These demonstrations led to the dismissal of the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, and Saied's implementation of Article 80 of the Constitution, which states that "in case of imminent danger threatening the integrity of the homeland or the security of the country", the state may take whatever measures it requires. Saied now faces the complex task of announcing a new government that will bring political stability to the country before the end of August.