DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
The government of Tanzania on Tuesday, May 26 summoned the acting United States ambassador for clarification of issues that the mission has recently posted on its website and social media pages that taint the image of Tanzania.
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| The acting US Ambassador, Inmi Patterson (L) in a discussion with Tanzania's Foreign Permanent Secretary, Wilbert Ibuge |
In a statement issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East
African Cooperation, the US Ambassador, Inmi Patterson, was summoned to the
Foreign Affairs office in Dar es Salaam, where she met the Permanent Secretary,
Wilbert Ibuge.
Early this month, the mission issued different Travel advisories to
its citizens on its website and on twitter page, pertaining to the handling of
the Covid-19 pandemic by the Tanzania government.
The ministry’s statement claims that on Wednesday May 13 and
Monday May 25 this year on the Embassy's Twitter page, which all seemed to be intended
to alert US citizens in Tanzania and those who intend to visit the country that
Dar es Salaam is not safe due to the presence of a large number of Covid-19
patients.
“The risk of contracting COVID-19 in Dar es Salaam is extremely
high. Despite limited official reports, all evidence points to exponential
growth of the epidemic in the city and other locations in Tanzania.” The US
Twitter statement read.
According to Ibuge, the warnings also claimed that many hospitals
in Dar es Salaam were overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients, something that was not
true and was likely to cause tension to Tanzanians and foreign nationals.
The US Global Level 4 Health Advisory for
COVID-19 advised that for emergency and other American Citizen Services,
including emergency passports they should visit the website for additional
information.
The warning elaborated further that many
hospitals in Dar es Salaam have been overwhelmed in recent weeks and that
limited hospital capacity throughout Tanzania could result in life-threatening
delays for medical care, including for those with COVID-19.
The Tanzania government said the information given by mission was
baseless and untrue.
The Ministry statement informed the US Ambassador on the
importance of providing certified information because the government does not
have any restriction on Ambassadors seeking and obtaining accurate and factual
information.
In a recent development, the US government through its agent,
USAID has given Tanzania further donation of $2.4 million Tsh. 5.6 billion) to
fight COVID-19 in the country.
In a statement made available on ‘US Embassy Tanzania’ Twitter page,
the amount is additional of the initial One million dollars provided earlier.
“The donation is meant to fight COVID-19 on the areas of
laboratory capacity for optimal diagnostics, risk communication, public health
messaging and other related activities.” Says the statement.
The government of Tanzania suspended provision of data on COVID-19 in the country since April 29, causing data vacuum on the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Tanzania; decision that has been criticized by opposition, activists and WHO.
By April 29, Tanzania had recorded 509 people who contracted the virus, 183 recovered and 21 had died.
WHO warned that coronavirus would devastate health systems in Africa, killing as many as 190,000 people on the continent in the first year of the pandemic.
It predicted 5.5 million could require hospital treatment, a number that would overwhelm the medical capacity of most places on the continent.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement last week that while cases in Africa may not spread to the extent as other places, coronavirus could be a permanent fixture if governments are not proactive about their containment strategies.
"Covid-19 could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years unless a proactive approach is taken by many governments in the region. We need to test, trace, isolate and treat," Moeti said in the news release. - Africa
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