Barriers to Covid-19 vaccines expose stark disparities in access to health

The Tunisian authorities’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly their management of the country’s vaccine rollout program, has exposed the entrenched inequality in the country’s healthcare system, Amnesty International said today.

With the World Health Organization (WHO) warning that new Covid variants may unleash another wave of infections, only 54% of Tunisia’s population have received two doses and only 10% a third. Of those third doses, those living in urban areas received up to 60%, while in many rural regions, vaccination rates for the third shot were as low as 4,5%.