Tunisia – Unable to anticipate the Ministry of Health remains in patching solutions

Following the identification of a new pandemic cluster of covid 19 at Chrarda, in the governorate of Kairouan, the health ministry began a vaccination campaign in the concerned locality and in the surroundings of cases discovered.

An act from which we can draw at least two lessons.

First, the health authorities in Kairouan did not reveal any anticipation nor did it undertake any screening work, despite the fact that the vaccination coverage percentage in this region and in others was extremely low to hope to obtain a satisfactory collective immunity and despite the government painful experience a few months ago during the last wave of the pandemic. This outbreak was found it was thanks to the vigilance of health workers in the governorate of Mahdia who were challenged by the multiplication of cases of covid from this infected area.

Second, although the health authorities in Kairouan knew that vaccination coverage was extremely low in the region, and in particular in rural areas, which proves to the failure of the vaccination strategy followed, they did not exert any action to correct this strategy and compensate for this lack of vaccination, such as, bringing the vaccine closer to residents by giving it in dispensaries or by operating through mobile caravans.

A method that has shown its worth, particularly during the journeys of military vaccination teams, which have been able to reach isolated populations and improve vaccination coverage in remote regions of the country. Furthermore, despite this known risk, the health authorities in Kairouan have not even been tempted to conduct spot screening in poorly vaccinated regions, in order to be able to respond in time in the event of a pandemic outbreak.

However, what is worrying is the situation in Kairouan is that fact that the latter is only a simple example of what is occurring at the level of the 24 governorates, where there remain numerous hands of unvaccinated or poorly vaccinated populations who remain potential breeding grounds for the appearance of new pandemic clusters.