Garlic Price in Tunisia Soaring, Rumored to be Remedy to COVID-19
The price of garlic in Tunisia, North Africa is soaring as consumers hope it will help protect against the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In a report of ABS-CBN News, garlic prices have skyrocketed in Tunisia, a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, due to widespread suspicions that it is effective against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Despite the World Health Organization warning against speculation, consumers have dominated the markets in the country, as well as supermarkets and other garlic-selling stores. Its price has reached between 20 and 25 dinars ($7-$8.85) per kilogram. Before that, it could only be bought for 8 Dinars per kilo.
According to one garlic seller, he could no longer sell it for 12 dinars per kilo as before because he had invested so much in it.
“Before, I used to buy five kilos (of garlic) for eight dinars a kilo and would sell it for 12, but now I can’t buy it anymore because the price has gone up so much”, said Khames Nabli, a shopkeeper in the south of the capital.
Many Tunisians believe some of social media posts that garlic is a good antidote to COVID-19. Garlic is often used to help ward off the flu, whose symptoms can be similar to those of COVID-19.
However, the WHO has sought to combat rumors about the virus, including the effect of garlic. WHO made a statement on their official website about it.
“Garlic is a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties,” the WHO website’s coronavirus “myth busters” page reads in several languages, including French and Arabic. “However, there is no evidence from the current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus.”
Meanwhile, Tunisia has registered six cases of the novel coronavirus, most in people who had been in Italy. A seventh person infected with the virus has returned to France, as based on the report.
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