Tunisia sees high turnout for vaccination against COVID-19

By Alaa Hammoudi

TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) - Tunisians turned out to vaccination centers in droves on Sunday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, amid a spread of the pandemic in the North African nation.

The strong turnout comes in the wake of a move by Tunisian President Kais Saied to declare August 8 as a national day for vaccination in a nationwide campaign that aims to vaccinate 1 million Tunisians.

On Monday, the Tunisian Presidency said it received six million COVID-19 doses from friendly countries to help stem the spread of the virus.

In recent months, Tunisia suffered high infection rates amid political instability in the country.

Tunisia has confirmed 610,660 virus infections, including 20,931 deaths, according to official figures.

The Health Ministry said 3.2 million vaccine doses have been administered, of which 1.24 million people have received the two shots of the vaccine.

Tunisia received COVID-19 vaccines as assistance from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab, France, Italy, China, and the US.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara