NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Tanzania’s president has finally acknowledged that his country has a coronavirus problem after claiming for months that the disease had been defeated by prayer.
Populist President John Magufuli on Sunday urged citizens of the East African country to take precautions and even put on masks, but only locally made. Throughout the pandemic, he has expressed concern about foreign-made goods, including COVID-19 vaccines.
The president’s comments came days after the country of some 60 million people mourned the death of one of its most prestigious politicians, the vice president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, whose political party had said earlier that he had COVID-19. The president’s chief secretary also died in recent days, although the cause was unknown.
Magufuli, in statements Friday at the funeral of the chief secretary, urged the nation to participate in three days of prayer for unspecified “respiratory” illnesses that had become a challenge in the country.
Tanzania has not updated the number of coronavirus infections since April, as the president has insisted that COVID-19 had been defeated. The official number of coronavirus infections in Tanzania is only 509, but residents report that many people have become ill with breathing difficulties and that hospitals have experienced an increase in patients due to “pneumonia”.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has added his voice to growing calls for Tanzania to recognize COVID-19 for the good of its citizens, neighboring countries and the world, especially after several countries reported that visitors arriving from Tanzania tested positive for the virus.
Tedros in a statement on Saturday called the situation in Tanzania “very worrying” and urged the Magufuli government to take “robust measures”. Others who have recently expressed concern are the United States and the local Catholic Church.