Tunis/Tunisia — Health Minister Abdellatif Mekki said Thursday the Tunisian territory is totally free of horizontal and domestic infection with the coronavirus, including in tourist areas.
At a press conference held jointly with Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts Mohamed Ali Toumi, Mekki indicated that the Health Department has carried out 3000 PCR tests on a random sample which targeted 3000 people from the island of Djerba, adding that all were negative.
In this regard, Mekki praised the efforts made by the medics and paramedics who had carried out the screening operations at the reference laboratory in the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, despite the large number of samples taken.
Director of the National Observatory of New and Emerging Diseases Nissaf Ben Alaya said that the analyses of random samples carried out as part of a field survey, in cooperation with the National Institute of Statistics (INS), took place from June 9 to 13 in three delegations on the island of Djerba.
Among the approved samples are two cases that were previously infected with the virus, added Ben Alaya confirming full control over domestic infection.
Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts Mohamed Ali Toumi, has praised the efforts made by the Ministry of Health to control the pandemic since the beginning of the crisis and the importance given to tourist areas in Tunisia, especially with the advent of the tourist season.
This has helped to overcome the stage of danger, especially on the island of Djerba, one of the most prominent tourist areas in Tunisia, now classified as “ready and safe”, according to him.
Toumi considered that this achievement would help to reflect the positive image enjoyed by Tunisia since the beginning of the fight against the pandemic, expressing the hope to invest in these convincing results for the organisation of tourist trips to Tunisia and the island of Djerba in particular.
