The World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed its call for Tanzania to start reporting on Covid-19 cases and sharing information about the measures it is taking to combat the pandemic.
“WHO has not yet received any information on the steps that Tanzania is taking to respond to the pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement on Saturday.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s president, John Magufuli, rejected the seriousness of the coronavirus in Tanzania, urging its citizens to “pray for the coronavirus to end”. In June, he said his country had eradicated the coronavirus “by the grace of God”.
Tanzania belongs to a small list of countries that do not publish data on Covid-19 cases or deaths. Tedros called on the country to reverse the course and provide transparent data.
“I renew my call for Tanzania to start reporting Covid-19 cases and sharing data. I also call on Tanzania to implement the public health measures that we know work to break the chains of transmission and to prepare for vaccination, ”said his statement.
The extent to which the coronavirus has spread in Tanzania remains unknown, but Tedros said the cases involving infected Tanzanians traveling abroad underscored the need for “robust action”.
“Several Tanzanians who travel to neighboring countries and beyond have tested positive for Covid-19. This underscores Tanzania’s need to take robust measures both to safeguard its own people and to protect the populations of these countries and beyond, ”said his statement.
Tanzania has not updated its Covid-19 data since late April, leaving the last number of confirmed cases reported at 509 and the death toll at 21. These are also the latest numbers that Johns Hopkins University has published on its website.
Last month, WHO urged authorities in Tanzania to follow science in the fight against coronavirus, after Magufuli suggested that approved vaccines are “dangerous” and that “not all vaccines are of good intentions for our nation.”
“There are some of our Tanzanian countrymen who recently traveled abroad in search of vaccines against the corona, it was they who brought the corona into our country after returning,” said Magufuli at an event on January 27.
“My Tanzanian comrades, let’s be strong, some of these vaccines are not good for us.”