North Africa virus cases plummeting

North Africa virus cases plummeting

TUNIS: Weeks after a spike in coronavirus cases overwhelmed intensive care units across North Africa with severe oxygen shortages sparking public anger, case numbers are sharply declining. Here is a look at the situation in the four countries of the Maghreb-Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya-based on official figures collected by AFP.

Tunisia

Images of intensive care units overwhelmed with COVID patients in July sparked outrage in Tunisia, which has suffered the region’s highest number of deaths per head from the virus, with around 24,500 in a population of 11.7 million. At its peak, the latest wave saw more than 55,000 new infections between 7-13 July-a weekly figure seven times the current rate. The past seven days saw 342 deaths from the virus-just a fifth of the toll in the last week of July. Authorities responded to the surge with a strict early evening curfew and travel restrictions. Neighboring Libya closed its border with Tunisia. Those measures have now been eased.

“There’s the effect of mass vaccination of the population,” said Hechmi Louzir, director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis, who is a member of the country’s scientific committee on the pandemic. He told AFP that up to 60 percent of the population could