Introduction

Tunisia’s Ministry of Health is ramping up health awareness activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry is focusing on two main areas within tobacco control: enforcing a ban on waterpipe use in public places and a national awareness campaign.

Ban on waterpipes in public places

Following a recommendation by the Ministry of Health, Tunisian Municipalities during the first ten days of March 2020 issued a decision banning waterpipes in all restaurants and cafés. Following the ban, there was a decision to close all cafés in the period from 20 March 2020 till 4 June 2020. Currently, customers are served drinks without being seated and the ban on waterpipes continues. Dr Faiçal Samaali, Tobacco Control Focal Point at the Ministry of Health stated: “We are really trying to make use of the period of COVID-19 to ban smoking in general as well as the ban on waterpipe use”.

Recognition of World No Tobacco Day and linking its activities to COVID-19

To coincide with World No Tobacco Day 2020, Tunisia’s National Anti-Tobacco Programme launched a national awareness campaign in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other UN agencies. The campaign, which focused on linking tobacco use to the transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, had the slogan of “Protect yourself from COVID-19 by quitting smoking”. The campaign utilised various materials, posters and a paper to the media disseminated through social media, radio and television. Key television programmes hosted Dr Faiçal in interviews to advocate tobacco cessation. The campaign posters were distributed and displayed inside of buses, bus stations, mosques and workplaces across Tunisia. In addition, the Department of Primary Healthcare at the Ministry of Health prepared a paper to the media under the same slogan as the campaign. The paper covered the background to COVID-19 highlighting the numbers of deaths caused by it; the paper also highlighted how smoking contributes to the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 and how quitting smoking can protect from contracting the virus.

Way forward

A multisectoral committee is continuing to monitor the COVID-19 developments and since 14 June the lockdown restrictions have been lifted totally. The Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Health has developed a protocol to protect workers in cafes if they resume serving waterpipes. The National Programme for Anti-Tobacco has requested from the Ministry of Health to approve the deployment of 400 health inspectors to monitor the ban on waterpipes. On its part, the Ministry of Health has addressed His Excellency the Minister of Interior to enforce the implementation of Law 17 (1998) on Protection Against the Dangers of Smoking and Order 2248 (1998) specifying places for collective use in which smoking is prohibited.

The Ministry of Health’s National Observatory for New and Emerging Diseases is working with WHO to administer a survey covering 1050 cases. The survey aims at gathering data to provide additional evidence for studies on the link between tobacco use and the transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Related links

Linking tobacco use to the transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 (YouTube)

Tunisia’s Ministry of Health website

Update about COVID-19 developments on news aired on channel El Watania 1 on 1 June 2020 (YouTube)