Tunisia has budgeted $100 million, with the help of the World Bank, to acquire covid-19 vaccines, health minister Faouzi Mahdi said Wednesday. The North African country according to Mahdi will acquire the vaccine from several producers including Pfizer with whom it has already struck a delivery deal. The World Bank-backed budget will cover purchases from laboratories whose vaccines are more than 90 per cent efficient and meet security norms. Earlier this month, Mahdi and several health officials indicated at a press conference that Tunisia will acquire covid-19 vaccine in the Q1 of next year and that the vaccination will be free of charge. Tunisia has so far recorded 114,547 COVID-19 cases and 3,997 fatalities since the report of the first case in February.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 17, 2020 12:00 UTC