NAIROBI (Reuters) – Tanzania’s top opposition leader said on Thursday that President John Magufuli, an outspoken skeptic of COVID-19 out of public view for almost two weeks, is in India receiving medical treatment for the virus and in serious condition.
Tundu Lissu, who lost the election last year to Magufuli, cited medical and security sources in Kenya for his information that the president had been transferred from the hospital in Kenya to India and was in a coma – but did not provide evidence.
Spokesmen for the Tanzanian government have remained silent for days of speculation about the whereabouts and health of 61-year-old Magufuli. Representatives of the Kenyan and Indian governments also contacted by Reuters also gave no information.
In power since 2015 and nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, Magufuli was last seen on February 27, looking like his normal sturdy body during a ceremony at the State House in Dar es Salaam.
Lissu told Reuters that Magufuli was flown to Nairobi Hospital in Kenya earlier this week and later to an unknown destination in India. “He’s been in a coma since yesterday morning,” he told Reuters, without giving further details.
Kenya’s Nation newspaper quoted unidentified political and diplomatic sources on Wednesday as saying that an African leader, whose name he did not reveal, was being treated by COVID-19 on a respirator at Nairobi Hospital. [L1N2L80WJ]
Hospital officials told Reuters they had no information to disclose. Magufuli’s communications director, Gerson Msigwa, and government spokesman Hassan Abbas did not respond to Reuters messages seeking comment.
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its high commission, or embassy, in Nairobi did not immediately comment.
‘COVID DENIALISM IN TATTERS’
Magufuli downplayed the threat from COVID-19, saying that God and medicines like steam inhalation protect Tanzanians. He scoffed at coronavirus testing, denounced vaccines as part of a Western conspiracy to take wealth from Africa, and opposed masks and social detachment.
“His crumbling COVID denial, his madness to pray for science has turned into a deadly boomerang,” Lissu tweeted on Thursday morning.
Under Tanzania’s constitution, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan will take office for the rest of the five-year term if the president is unable to fulfill his duties.
Tanzania stopped reporting coronavirus data in May last year, when it said it had 509 cases and 21 deaths, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said at a news conference on Thursday that she had no direct information about Magufuli’s health and that it would be unwise to speculate. She noted that Tanzania now recognizes the danger of COVID-19 after the death of two senior officials and said that more data would be welcome.
“Whatever the case with President Magufuli, we can only wish him luck if these stories are indeed true, and we reiterate our readiness to support the government and people of Tanzania,” she said.
Magufuli, a former chemistry professor from the village of Chato in northwest Tanzania, quickly climbed the political ladder after winning a parliamentary seat in 1995. Elected president in 2015, he faced accusations from western countries and opposition parties for eroding democracy, which he denies.
TV footage showed Magufuli on January 8 thanking China’s senior diplomat, Wang Yi, for appearing without a mask to meet him during a trip through Africa. Magufuli said he demonstrated that the minister was aware that Tanzania was free of COVID-19 and began to shake his hand in front of the cameras while the two smiled.
Other Chinese officials present wore masks.
Reporting by Duncan Miriri and David Lewis in Nairobi; Giulia Paravicini in Addis Ababa; Alexander Winning in Johannesburg; Written by Andrew Cawthorne, edition by William Maclean