Tunisia records highest daily deaths from coronavirus

TUNIS, Tunisia

Tunisia said Saturday that 317 people had died from the coronavirus, the country’s highest death toll since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus last year.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that 5,624 patients had also tested positive for the virus over the past 24 hours.

The new tally takes the North African nation’s count to 563,930 cases, including 18,369 fatalities.

Tunisia has seen an unprecedented wave of infections in recent weeks due to the highly infectious Delta variant.

The previous highest one-day death toll was recorded in Tunisia on July 17, with 205 fatalities.

According to Tunisian health figures, 2,420,468 people have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus out of the country’s 11.7 million population.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara