The number of
COVID-19 cases in Tanzania has today jumped to 480 after 196 people tested positive
of the novel coronavirus as opposition leaders call for government to give true
data and take advised measures to slow the impact of coronavirus.
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| Tanzania Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa (L), officiating handover of 10 new ambullaces donated by government through Global Fund to some hospitals in the country while Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu (C), looks on. |
The figures include 22 of those announced
by the Zanzibar Minister of Health, Hamad Rashid yesterday making Tanzania most infected country in East Africa.
Making the announcement the Prime
Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, said the country had also registered six more deaths
bringing the number of fatalities to 16 since the virus was first recorded in
Tanzania in March this year.
Prime Minister said that of the 196 new
cases 174 are from Tanzania Mainland whereas 22 are from Zanzibar.
Without elaborating on the regions of
the new patients or deaths, Majaliwa said that the numbers of those who have
recovered from the virus now stood at 167 from 48, out of those who have healed
36 are from Zanzibar whereas 83 are from Mainland Tanzania.
He called on the general public to stop
disseminating false information on the deaths because not every death has to be
related to coronavirus.
Talking in an online television later
today, the leader of opposition party (CHADEMA), Freeman Mbowe called for inclusive intervention; urging the
government to give true data on the new cases, deaths and enforce scientific
measures to fight COVID-19
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| Leader of opposition party (CHADEMA), Freeman Mbowe |
He said the data given by Tanzania
government are cooked and do not reflect the reality at the community. “We know
how mortuaries are full of dead bodies, we see how the government is
participating in burying the dead at night and deny the relatives to
participate. We know, so let the government come forward and tell us and the
WHO the truth” He said.
Mbowe who is the leader of opposition
in the Parliament urge the government to request assistance from other
developed countries and United Nations institutions to help the country from
mass deaths that the country is facing in a near future.
"It is high degree of stupidity for a country to think that it can fight COVID-19 its own way through economic, scientific, cultural, religious based or through sorcery." He warned adding that the pandemic has killed hundreds of people in developed countries that could not be compared with Tanzania.
"It is high degree of stupidity for a country to think that it can fight COVID-19 its own way through economic, scientific, cultural, religious based or through sorcery." He warned adding that the pandemic has killed hundreds of people in developed countries that could not be compared with Tanzania.
He said that at this juncture, where the
government of Tanzania declined to carryout mass testing, it cannot control the
community-based widespread of coronavirus and deaths without support from World Health Organization or developed countries.
“We need immediate support for personal
protective equipments (PPE), testing and other hospitalised equipments to fight
the novel coronavirus; we are exposing our health practitioners to danger by
providing limited protective gears.” Mbowe stressed.
He asked the President of Tanzania,
John Magufuli, to rethink of his strategies in fighting COVID-19 by including
opposition leaders, faith based leaders and communicate with other presidents
to gain experience from those countries.
The opposition leader warned that coronavirus is real
and is in the community and that every person has obligation to take proper protective
measures as advised by health experts.
Last week, President Magufuli ruled out the lock-down of commercial city of Dar es Salaam, citing that the
city is the only centre where the government collect almost 80 per cent of the
country’s revenue.
Magufuli also
urged medical authorities to promote the use of natural remedies to fight the
disease, shunting science aside and discourage use of imported face masks for risk of contamination.
The country has
not taken into account the scientific measures like total or partial lock-down
of the cities, towns, churches, mosques and cross-border cargo trucks’
movements. - Africa
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