NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The President of Tanzania finally acknowledges that his country has a coronavirus problem after claiming for months that the disease has been defeated through prayer.
The populist president, John Magufuli, on Sunday urged citizens of the country in East Africa to take precautions and even wear face masks, but only locally made ones. In the course of the pandemic, he expressed his concerns about goods manufactured abroad, including COVID-19 vaccines.
The president’s comments come days after the country of some 60 million people mourned the death of one of the high-profile politicians, the vice-president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, whose political party had earlier said he had COVID -19. The president’s general secretary has also died in recent days, although the cause has not been disclosed.
Magufuli, who spoke during a national television broadcast on Friday during the secretary general’s funeral, urged the country to participate in three days of prayer for unspecified “respiratory” diseases that have become a challenge in the country.
Tanzania has not updated its number of coronavirus infections since April, as the president insisted that COVID-19 be defeated. The official number of coronavirus infections in Tanzania remains at only 509, but residents report that many people have become ill with respiratory problems and that hospitals have seen an increase in patients for ‘pneumonia’.
The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, added his voice to growing calls for Tanzania to recognize COVID-19 in favor of its citizens, neighbors and the world, especially after a number of countries reported that visitors coming from Tanzania arrived, tested positive for the virus.
Tedros in a statement on Saturday described the situation in Tanzania as “very worrying” and urged Magufuli’s government to take ‘robust action’. Others who have recently expressed concern include the United States and the local Catholic Church.