Praised for being the Arab’s Springs only success, Tunisia has increasingly been rocked by political challenges and the Delta Variant of the COVID-19 virus is deepening the crisis for Tunisia’s democracy. Heba Saleh had this information in Irish Times. Here is an excerpt:

A fast-deteriorating health situation has added to Tunisia’s political and economic woes as the aggressive Delta variant of coronavirus takes hold in a country with low vaccinations and the Arab world’s highest Covid-19 death rate.

The World Health Organisation said that after keeping infections under control last year, Tunisia was now facing an “extremely concerning” surge in cases. Only 7 per cent of the North African country’s population is fully vaccinated. With chaotic scenes in hospitals and vaccination centres across the country, the president last Wednesday put the military in charge of the pandemic response.

Intensive care units are almost full with some hospitals experiencing shortages of oxygen, which is crucial for Covid-19 patients suffering breathing difficulties. Earlier this month, the daily death toll surpassed 200 – a record for the north African country of 12 million people, where nearly 18,000 people in total have already died.

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