A health emergency bill will be submitted soon to the House of People’s Representatives (French: ARP), Minister in charge of Civil Service and Acting Justice Minister Hasna Ben Slimane said Sunday in Sfax.
“This piece of legislation will help secure a better management of resources amid the COVID-19 outbreak,” she added as she made a visit to the governorate as part of inspection visits to vaccination centres and hospitals across the country. Efforts need to be pooled, she said, to ensure the rigorous enforcement of health guidelines.
Health workers called on the government, at a working session of the local disaster control committee attended by Ben Slimane, to accelerate the entry into service of oxygen concentrators in the COVID-19 ward under construction in Hédi Chaker teaching hospital.
Local Health Director Jaouher Mokni said attendees of the meeting also underlined the need to set up an emergency centre for COVID-19 patients put on oxygen, in addition to a facility for virus carriers.
Director of the National Care Centre for COVID-19 Patients in Sfax Slim Baker Safi told TAP on the sidelines of the working session the facility is saturated. The number of oxygen-fitted and intensive care beds rose from 80 to 160.
Latest figures show a slight improvement in the epidemiological situation over the last 14 days with a mortality rate of 4.8% against a national rate of 8.7%.
The governorate logs an average 192 infections per 100,000 inhabitants compared a national average of 338 infections.
Source: TAP News Agency