TUNIS, March 22 (Xinhua) -- A Tunisian health official announced Sunday that the island of Djerba in southeastern Tunisia is "classified as a potential source of COVID-19 contamination."
Medical teams in Djerba have detected a case of COVID-19 infection, the source of which was not yet known, said Nissaf Ben Alaya, director general of the National Observatory for Emerging Diseases under the Tunisian Ministry of Health, at a press briefing.
"It is the first of its kind especially since the infected person did not return from travel and did not have direct contact with a coronavirus patient," Ben Alaya added.
This case forces local authorities to classify the island of Djerba as "an epicenter of the epidemic."
Ben Alaya explained that this case could represent the triggering of a series of cases of horizontal transmission.
An investigation will be carried out on all direct contacts of the above-mentioned case of infection. Anyone who tests positive will be isolated from the rest of the population.
As of Sunday, Tunisian Ministry of Health announced 75 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including one recovery and three deaths.
