Tunisian health minister sacked amid rising COVID-19 cases

Tunisia's Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi on Tuesday decided to remove Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi, amid rising COVID-19 cases in the North African country, reported Xinhua.

"Mohamed Trabelsi, the minister of social affairs, will be in charge of the interim at the ministry of health," reads a statement issued by the Tunisian government.

This decision came as Tunisia is going through a new, more dangerous wave of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average of more than 500 cases detected per 100,000 persons in about half of the country's 24 provinces.

Tunisian Health Ministry on Monday reported 2,520 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the country to 548,753, while the death toll from the virus rose by 117 to 17,644.