After months of denying the obvious, several high-ranking former and current officials have died from what many suspect to be coronavirus. The government has started taking standard precautions to prevent the spread of Covid..
The deceased top officials include: chief secretary to State House John Kijazi, former deputy finance minister Gregory Teu, former governor of Bank of Tanzania Benno Ndulu and first vice-president of Zanzibar Maalim Seif Sharrif Hamad, whose party ACT Wazalendo confirmed he had tested positive for Covid-19 just before his death.
Speaking at the funeral of Kijazi, Magufuli urged Tanzanians to participate in three days of prayer for “respiratory illnesses” that had become a challenge in Tanzania.
The authorities are asking doctors to refrain from referring to unspecified respiratory illnesses as Covid-19 or accepting patients that claim to have symptoms specific to the virus.
From a previous report in The Africa Report, one anonymous doctor said: “We are pressured by the authorities not to attend to people who have coronavirus symptoms rather than treating them for pneumonia and lung infections.”
Economy over lives
Rather than opt for a lockdown or curfew as neighboring countries did, early on Magufuli declared Tanzania to be free from coronavirus after three days of prayers. As of May 2020, the Magufuli administration had stopped testing people and releasing data on the number of infections. By then, the country had reported 509 cases with 21 fatalities.
While other countries reported new cases, recoveries and fatalities and even took measures like testing at their borders, officials in Tanzania were dancing and singing that Covid cannot survive in their bodies after prayers.
But diplomatic and political analyst Wetengere Kitojo in Dar es Salaam says contrary to what some people believe, Tanzania is observing all guidelines issued by health experts.
“Regardless of what others in the region are saying, our government is serious about protecting people in a way that does not affect the economy. Tanzania should not be dictated on this matter.”
In a statement issued on 21 February, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom called the situation in Tanzania concerning and urged it to follow scientific protocols: “This underscores the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect the population in these countries and beyond.”
The very same day of the WHO’s statement, Magufuli made a slight amendment to his usual discourse regarding Covid. After months of refusing to impose a lockdown or release any data on rising cases, he emerged from a Church service asking Tanzanians to put on locally made face masks instead of imported ones. Masks coming from abroad could not be trusted he said, echoing earlier statements of distrust regarding the vaccine.
“As Tanzanians, we must be keen to wear these face masks. If those who created them are not dying, then they are good for us. Please use masks produced by the ministry of health,” said Magufuli after exiting Saint Peter’s Catholic Church.
While Magufuli made a slight U-turn on his usual discourse of the pandemic, there are still a lot to be done.
Without publishing official numbers, the public and medical workers have no real sense of how bad the situation is.
“Regardless of what others in the region are saying, our government is serious about protecting people in a way that does not affect the economy. Tanzania should not be dictated on this matter.”
In a statement issued on 21 February, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom called the situation in Tanzania concerning and urged it to follow scientific protocols: “This underscores the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect the population in these countries and beyond.”
The very same day of the WHO’s statement, Magufuli made a slight amendment to his usual discourse regarding Covid. After months of refusing to impose a lockdown or release any data on rising cases, he emerged from a Church service asking Tanzanians to put on locally made face masks instead of imported ones. Masks coming from abroad could not be trusted he said, echoing earlier statements of distrust regarding the vaccine.
“As Tanzanians, we must be keen to wear these face masks. If those who created them are not dying, then they are good for us. Please use masks produced by the ministry of health,” said Magufuli after exiting Saint Peter’s Catholic Church.
While Magufuli made a slight U-turn on his usual discourse of the pandemic, there are still a lot to be done.
Without publishing official numbers, the public and medical workers have no real sense of how bad the situation is.
