NAIROBI (Reuters) – The United States on Friday called on vaccine-skeptical Tanzania to review evidence on the drug, saying it works and is one of the tools to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Don Wright said he was encouraged by authorities to recently recognize COVID-19 as a public health priority and urged Tanzanians to take basic precautions to ward off the virus.
In a statement, he called on the government to start sharing data on testing and cases “to know if response measures have the intended impact”, and said the government should use vaccines as an anti-coronavirus tool.
“There is no doubt that a mass vaccination campaign will save lives,” he said. “I call on the Tanzanian government to convene its health experts and review the evidence on vaccines.”
President John Magufuli was one of the world leaders most skeptical about fighting the pandemic. He also questioned the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and said last month that it was “not good. If that were the case, the white man would have been vaccinated against HIV / Aids”.
His government has said it does not plan to import vaccines.
Last week, the death of a senior politician who tested positive for COVID-19 contributed to concerns about a hidden epidemic going on in the East African country.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, on Sunday called on Tanzania to step up public health measures, prepare to distribute vaccines and start reporting coronavirus cases and sharing data.
The government stopped reporting coronavirus statistics last May, at a time when it had registered 509 cases and 21 deaths.
The US embassy said on February 10 that Tanzania was experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases and that its healthcare facilities could be quickly overwhelmed.
The health minister on Wednesday urged citizens to take precautions against COVID-19, including wearing face masks, avoiding unnecessary public gatherings and washing hands.
(Reported by Nairobi Newsroom; edited by Frances Kerry)