COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia
The COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease was confirmed to have reached Tunisia on 2 March 2020. Background. On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but  the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. Model-based simulations for Tunisia indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number "R" was higher than 1.0 from July to October 2020. Economic consequences. On 18 March 2020, the President of the Tunis Stock Exchange (BVMT) noted a 14.2% drop in the stock market index in Tunisia. On 21 March 2020, the flagship index of the Tunis Stock Exchange finished falling by 7.3% to 6,138.82 points.