Tunisia-Nissaf Ben Alaya : When we imposed a curfew, wedding began to be organized at 6:00 pm

Nissaf Ben Alaya, director-general of the National Observatory for Emerging Diseases and spokesperson for the Ministry of Health affirmed that the obligation to implement the measures that the government had announced recently due to the presence of indicators on the continuation of the upward trend of the spread of the Coronavirus. ”
Speaking to Nessma TV, she  Alia indicated that it was confirmed by the Scientific Committee that large gatherings (weddings, funerals, demonstrations …) caused community episodes of infection, adding that after the decision was made to impose a nightly curfew to prevent gatherings, especially at weddings, weddings started to be organized at Six in the evening with large gatherings.

On the other hand, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health disclosed that the Scientific Committee is an advisory committee chaired by the Minister of Health and includes a number of experts and its role are advisory only which entails the assessment of the epidemiological situation and submit recommendations to the central authority, which takes decisions based on recommendations.

She also stressed that Tunisia had managed in the first period to control the epidemic thanks to a comprehensive Lockdown of six weeks.

She related that during the decision to open the borders, the scientific committee formed a health protocol stipulating that a negative analysis of the arrivals to the country from all regions is required, however, pressures from the tourism sector following the cancellation of tourist reservations ended up cancelling the tests despite the scientific committee’s rejection of this decision.