Tunisia will ban all events including celebrations for the new year and extend its night curfew until January 15 to help combat the spread of coronavirus, the health minister said on Tuesday.
The government imposed the night curfew in October and banned travel between regions in the North African country.
On Monday, Tunisia said it had recorded a total of 121,718 coronavirus infections, including 4 199 deaths.
Tunisian authorities said they had ordered vaccines from US drugmaker Pfizer.
Meanwhile Europe became the first region worldwide to cross 500 000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain threatened the region’s prevention measures to curb the pandemic.
Reports of the mutated variant out of England prompted a pre-Christmas lockdown and have forced dozens of countries close their borders to British travelers this week.
Italy, the nation with the highest death toll in Europe, on Sunday detected a patient infected with the new variant as have Denmark and France.
To curb the spread, European countries are considering screening passengers on flights from UK and obligating quarantine for travelers upon arrival.
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first nation to approve the Pfizer Inc – BioNTech vaccine followed by the United States, European Union, and other countries.
Europe has reported about 30% of the global COVID-19 fatalities and cases so far, according to a Reuters tally.
Europe’s death toll has accelerated in recent months.
