Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania – Esther Mngodo, like other Tanzanians, was relieved to hear government officials this week urging people in the country to take precautions against coronavirus and even to wear masks.
“It’s a good play,” said Mngodo, a 34-year-old Dar-es-Salaam resident. “But much more needs to be done to raise public awareness, testing and treatment. Most importantly, we need to have a clear strategy on how to navigate these unprecedented times.”
In a surprise change in the official stance on the coronavirus, President John Magufuli said Sunday that the government had not banned the use of masks and encouraged those who wanted it.
However, he warned against what they claimed were defective in sales in the country, suggesting that coronavirus-related mortality rates around the world could be related to the uptake of these products and claiming that rural areas of coronavirus Tanzania were less prone to the virus because they tended not to carry them.
“The government has not banned wearing masks. But we have to be careful what masks we wear. We will perish. Don’t think they love us so much. Economic warfare is bad, ”Magufuli told a congregation at an ecclesiastical service in Dar es Salaam.
“These masks we buy in stores, we are killing ourselves,” he argued, before advising Tanzanians to make the masks themselves or to use locally produced ones.
Magufuli has long minimized the severity of COVID-19, urging Tanzanians to pray, use steam inhalation, and adopt local remedies to protect themselves from respiratory diseases. Tanzania stopped publishing infection numbers in April 2020, weeks before Magufuli declared the country free of coronavirus in June through divine intervention.
For Mngodo, the recent change of direction could be the result of what appears to be a deadly resurgence of the infection, which has swept across the country in recent months.
“It seems that the scope of the problem has reached a point where the government cannot deny the seriousness of the problem,” said Mngodo, a media consultant.
Announcements of deaths often attributed to “current pneumonia” or “respiratory problems” have flooded social media.
Among the dead are several high-profile people, including several university professors, a former central bank governor, the country’s chief secretary and Zanzibar’s first vice president, Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad.
Of them, Hamad was the only person confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus, while sending the results of the COVID-19 test to the media. As for the rest, the public has been left to speculate on the causes of his death, at a time when the world is still battling the coronavirus pandemic and many common Tanzanians have been affected by the effects of its death.
These circumstances have led religious leaders and other critics, especially on social media, to pressure the government to provide clear and consistent guidelines on fighting the pandemic, while urging people to take precautions.
A U.S.-based Tanzanian doctor, Frank Minja, said the change of heart is welcome, if it has been long overdue, and could present an opportunity. “We want to encourage them [the president] to move faster in implementing what we know is effective and implement it immediately, ”he said.
“I don’t mean it’s too late, because if we say too late it means we could do nothing too. And because, by its nature, pandemic attacks in waves, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing, ”added Minja, who has been campaigning on social media to raise awareness about the coronavirus.
Dorothy Semu, acting president of the opposition party ACT Wazalendo, criticized Magufuli and said the measures implemented when the virus first entered the country, including physical distances and the cancellation of major events, should have been ‘have kept in place.
“I’m a politician, but I’m also a believer in science,” Semu said. “As leaders responsible for people’s lives, it is important that we make our decisions based on the facts. It’s like when HIV / AIDS was discovered; some people denied his presence and many lives were lost. Therefore, I hoped that the president, who is also a scientist, would continue with the past measures and we would have saved many lives. “
Magufuli declared Tanzania “coronavirus-free” in June, thanks to prayers from its citizens [File: AP Photo]
Magufuli’s new stance – a former professor and industrial chemist – on the use of masks seems to have also caused many other public officials and officials to show up suddenly and warn people of the dangers of coronavirus and the measures individuals should take. take to protect yourself from the virus.
For example, the agency that runs Dar-es-Salaam high-speed buses on Monday said passengers could not board if they were not wearing a mask.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, led by Dorothy Gwajima, who has previously defended the inhalation of steam and a vegetable smoothie to treat COVID-19, earlier this week issued a statement warning people against the virus and appeal Using them to take precautions.
However, he insisted that he would not recommend blocking measures.
“As the president said, we won last year and the economy continued to grow until we achieved middle-income economy status and the coronavirus still existed,” the ministry statement said.
“We didn’t set up closures and even now we won’t impose closures because God is on our side.”