Saudi sends 1m covid vaccine doses to Tunisia 

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has ordered medical supplies be sent to Tunisia, including one million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, in response to a recent appeal by the African state’s President Kais Saied.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted a royal statement as saying that Salman had instructed the state-run King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) “to urgently send medical and preventive equipment and supplies to Tunisia, in an attempt to support the North African country in the face of the spread of the coronavirus.”

“The generous guidance comes as an affirmation of the deep relations that bind the leaderships of Saudi Arabia and Tunisia,” the statement added.

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On his part, the centre’s Supervisor General, Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah, told media that the aid would include 190 artificial respirators, 319 oxygen tanks, 150 medical beds, and 50 vital signs monitoring devices with trolleys, as well as four million medical masks, 500,000 medical gloves, 180 pulse oximeters, 25 intravenous drug pumps, nine defibrillators, 15 video laryngoscopes, and five electrocardiographs (ECG).

So far, a total of 501,923 people have contracted the virus in Tunisia, 16,494 of whom have died, and 400,378 others have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers.