Tunisia’s Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh has announced that a lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus will be extended to May 3 before it is progressively eased. The situation will “soon be mastered”, Fakhfakh declared in a televised interview late Sunday, saying this would allow for a step-by-step re-opening of the economy and society.
Tunisia has been under a 6pm to 6am curfew since March 17 and authorities imposed stricter lockdown orders on March 22. “Up to now we have been successful,” Fakhfakh said. “But we are not yet through” the pandemic, he warned, declaring that “we want to flatten the curve” of the number of infections.
Since the country confirmed its first case of the respiratory disease in early March, Tunisia has declared 38 deaths from the virus among 879 confirmed infections. With the advent of Ramadan, the curfew will begin two hours later, at 8pm.
AFP
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Transcript: The Sahel is now clearly the next big event in Africa's geopolitics. After the complete destruction of Libya, the same foreign powers that paid for the killing of a nation are now shifting their attention to the Sahel, establishing the bases of another...
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The North Africa Journal is a leading English-language publication focused on North Africa. The Journal covers primarily the Maghreb region and expands its general coverage to the Sahel, Egypt, and beyond, when events in those regions affect the broader North Africa geography. The Journal does not have any affiliation with any institution and has been independent since its founding in 1996. Our position is to always bring our best analysis of events affecting the region, and remain as neutral as humanly possible. Our coverage is not limited to one single topic, but ranges from economic and political affairs, to security, defense, social and environmental issues. We rely on our full staff analysts and editors to bring you best-in-class analysis. We also work with sister company MEA Risk LLC, to leverage the presence on the ground of a solid network of contributors and experts. Information on MEA Risk can be found at www.MEA-Risk.com.