Tunisia imposes four-day nationwide lockdown from Thursday to curb Covid-19 propagation

Tunisia Tuesday announced a four-day general lockdown starting from Thursday jan.14 as authorities move to curb alarming covid-19 contaminations.

The measure includes a nationwide curfew from 4pm to 6am, suspension of school classes until January 24, ban on all cultural events. Restaurants and cafes ordered not to provide seats for their clients.

The move comes few days after President Kais Saied lambasted the government over the handling of the pandemic despite several measures put in place to stem contaminations.

The North African country registered 164,936 cases and 5,343 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in February.

Saied also instructed the government to begin talks with Russia for the acquisition of Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine.

The acquisition of the Russian vaccine will be financed by the Russian investment fund.

Sputnik V is considered more than 95 per cent efficient on the 42nd day after the injection on condition that the patient has received the second dose.

Russia was the first country in the world to have announced in August the discovery of a vaccine for the respiratory disease. Tunisia has also signed up for vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories.