Prognosis
As COVID-19 Surges in Tunisia, Oxygen Is in Short Supply
A worker checks the oxygen tanks inside the Covid-19 emergency field hospital in Manouba Governorate, in Tunisia.
Photographer: Jdidi Wassim/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
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Kairouan, Tunisia (AP) -- As Tunisia faces a surge of COVID-19 cases, demand for life-saving oxygen has grown higher than the supply, leaving patients desperate and family members angry at the government as they say they are forced to find oxygen on their own.
As the misery grows, traders have seized on an opportunity for profit, buying supplies of oxygen and other treatments and then renting them or selling them at higher prices. The profitable enterprise that is growing online has prompted citizens to call on authorities for intervention.