Tunisia-Hechmi Louzir: The goal is to vaccinate 20% of Tunisians against Covid-19 by summer 2021

We will start the vaccination with the 93,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine which should come in Tunisia in mid-February,2021, director of the Institut Pasteur in Tunis and chairman of the vaccination commission, Hechmi Louzir told Mosaïque FM.

“At the conclusion of February, our nation will receive 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Therefore, 4.8 million doses of vaccine are anticipated to be delivered to the country as part of the Covax initiative, “he added.

Louzir explained that Tunisia was still in the phase of community transmission of the virus, emphasising that the number of recorded deaths was on the rise.

In addition, Mr. Louzir expected that the number of people registered for vaccination should grow and that vaccination should reach approximately 50% of the Tunisian population following the awareness campaign. “Tunisians will be able to get vaccinated by the close of the summer,” he said. The aim is to vaccinate 20% of Tunisians against Covid-19 by the summer, according to the priorities set by the Ministry of Health “. In this regard, he confirmed that Tunisia was planning to launch the vaccination campaign under the best conditions.

Hechmi Louizir further stressed that the administration had settled negotiations for the acquisition of two million Pfizer vaccines in March 2021. “CDC Africa will give us with two million doses of additional vaccines”, he said before specifying that Tunisia has launched negotiations with the Russian side to obtain the Sputnik V vaccine.