Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA
The United States of America’s Embassy in Tanzania has today issued a health alert to its citizens and the Embassy personnel warning of rapid growth of coronavirus in the country and specifically in the commercial city of Dar es salaam.
Chargé
d’Affaires, Inmi Patterson (L) meets President John Magufuli
According to the notification made available to the
Embassy’s website https://tz.usembassy.gov/
under the heading ‘Health Alert: U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam’, the Embassy is warning that
the risk of contracting COVI-19 in the city is extremely high.
“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 statement read.
Adding that the Embassy has strongly recommended
that U.S. government personnel and their families remain at home except for
essential activities and substantially limit into private homes the entry of
anyone but regular residents.
The statement says that the Tanzanian government
has not released any data on COVID-19 in the country since April 29, so there
are no current data on the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in
Tanzania.
It elaborates further that the Department of State
has issued a Global Level 4 Health Advisory for COVID-19 advising that for
emergency and other American Citizen Services, including emergency passports
they should visit the website for additional information.
The Embassy says 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 statement warns U.S.
citizens who remain in Tanzania that they should be prepared to remain abroad
for an indefinite period.
“The U.S. government does not anticipate arranging
additional repatriation flights in Tanzania at this time. However, in the event
that opportunity becomes available, we are asking you to let us know if you are
interested in being contacted.”
The Government of Tanzania suspended all
international scheduled passenger planes to Tanzania effective April 11 and
international commercial flight options no longer exist in the country.
Tanzania's President John
Magufuli, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, is denying a spike in the
country's coronavirus cases, claiming that positive COVID-19 tests are faulty saying
they returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.
The President, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits.
According to government records of April 29 this year, 509 people in
Tanzania have so far contracted the virus, 183 recovered and 21 have died. But
the official numbers, which are provided in increasingly rare updates, are
being regarded with great suspicion.
Several opposition leaders and activists in recent weeks have
accused the government of failing to inform the public on the extent of the
disease's outbreak and covering up the true number of fatalities.
CHADEMA, the main opposition party
called for inclusive intervention to maintain coronavirus urging the
government to give true data on the new cases, deaths and enforce scientific
measures to fight COVID-19; the proposal that government has downplayed.
Three Members of Parliament died between April 20 and 1st May this year after short and undisclosed illness causing anxiety among members.
The opposition party thereafter instructed its members to self-quarantine and refrain from going close to parliamentary buildings in Dodoma and Dar es Salaam over similar concerns. - Africa
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