Tunisia announced, on Sunday, the complete closure of its borders with Libya, stressing that this is a precautionary health measure in the context of combating the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Tunisia has witnessed a huge increase in the death toll from COVID-19 recently, which led to the emergence of large demonstrations against the government and parliament of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahda Movement party.
Nissaf Ben Ali, spokesperson for the Tunisian Ministry of Health, said that the country’s health care system “collapsed” due to what she described as the third devastating wave of COVID-19.
She confirmed in a statement that the spread of the delta strain of the virus led to a severe shortage of beds and oxygen, and burdened health workers. She added, “The boat is sinking.
On the other hand, the spokesman for the new Libyan unity government, Mohamed Hammouda, announced, on Thursday, the closure of his country’s borders with Tunisia for a week due to the high cases of COVID-19 infection in Tunisia.
The decision came as a precautionary step for what the Libyan government described as “the deterioration of the situation and the collapse of the health system,” as well as the increasing number of cases of the delta strain of COVID-19 in Tunisia.
