COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia


The COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The disease was confirmed to have reached Tunisia on 2 March 2020.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. Model-based simulations for Tunisia indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number Rt was below 1.0 from mid-March to the end of May but has since increased to include 1.

Timeline

March

Tunisia confirmed its first case on 2 March 2020, with the victim being a 40-year-old Tunisian man from Gafsa returning from Italy.
In addition, 74 suspected cases in Gafsa have been placed under home confinement. Two of the suspected cases violated the confinement measures, and the local health directorate decided to take legal action against them.
In March there were 394 confirmed cases, 10 deaths and 3 recovered patients. The number of active cases at the end of the month was 381.

April

There were 600 new cases in April, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 994. The death toll increased to 41. The number of recovered patients grew to 305. There were 648 active cases at the end of the month.

May

On 10 May 2020, Tunisia recorded zero new coronavirus cases for the first time since early March.
During May the number of confirmed cases grew by 83 to 1077. There were seven more fatalities, bringing the death toll to 48. The number of recovered patients rose to 960, leaving 69 active cases at the end of the month.

June

In June there were 97 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1174. Two more patients died, raising the death toll to 50. The number of recovered patients grew to 1031, leaving 93 active cases at the end of the month.

July

On 17 July the Ministry of Public Health announced that 9 new cases tested positive as of 16 July, including 4 cases of local contamination, raising the total to 1336 confirmed cases.
By the end of the month the number of confirmed cases had risen to 1535, an increase by 361 in July. The death toll remained unchanged. The number of recovered patients grew to 1195, leaving 290 active cases by the end of the month.

Economic consequences

On 18 March 2020, the President of the Tunis Stock Exchange noted a 14.2% drop in the stock market index in Tunisia.
On 21 March 2020, the flagship index of the Tunis Stock Exchange finished falling by 7.3% to 6,138.82 points.

Statistics