Inside Tunisia hospital treating COVID patients

Health workers in Tunisia are under immense pressure to treat and save COVID-19 patients, as cases soar during country's severe second wave. In Sousse, a city 150 km (93 miles) south of capital Tunis, doctors and nurses at Farhat Hached University Hospital said lessons h been learned from initial phase on how to treat coronavirus patients.

But overwhelming worklo, combined with a short of staff, was making life much harder this time around. Nurses deal with 17 or 18 patients a day, sometimes without a break, according to Sok Khdhir, supervisor of emergency services at hospital. Zied Mezgar, its he of emergency services, said staff h w been working "tirelessly and without interruption" for 14 months.

rising infections are raising alarm at a time when government is facing unrest among youth nationwide over poverty and lack of jobs. government has re-implemented preventive strategies - including physical distancing, a curfew at night and banning of meetings and demonstrations among ors - in an attempt to stop spre of virus in rth African country. country of 11 million people has reported more than 219,000 cases and 7,378, according to Johns Hopkins University. It has one of highest death rates in region.

Tunisian authorities have given emergency authorization to use Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, but have t yet ordered any doses, a health official said Friday. Meanwhile, country is expected to get its first deliveries — 93,000 initial doses from Pfizer-BioNTech in mid-February, followed by about 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, according to director of Pasteur Institute in Tunis, Dr Hachemi Louzir, who is overseeing Tunisia's vaccination program.