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

Tunisia Tuesday announced a four-day general lockdown starting from Thursday 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 a few days after President Kais Saied lambasted the government over handling of the pandemic despites several measures put in place to stem contaminations.
The North African country registered Sunday 3,074 new cases bringing the infection toll to 162,350. 69 fatalities were also registered – 5,284 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in February.
Saied also instructed the government to begin talks with Russia for the acquisition of Moscow-backed Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine.
Faouzi Mehdi, minister of health is expected to have talks with Russian envoy to North Africa in connection with the acquisition of the Russian vaccine 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.