TANZANIA U-TURNS
…President Suluhu says Tanzania to re-evaluate position on Covid-19
DAR ES SALAAM - Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan intends to form a committee of experts to evaluate the Covid-19 pandemic and advise the government on the way forward.
President Suluhu said yesterday that Tanzania needs to have a clear and understandable position on the pandemic so that it can make informed decisions.
The country cannot continue to rely on external reports on the pandemic while it has none, she said.
“On the issue of Covid-19, I think I should form a committee of experts to look at it professionally and then advise the government. It should not be silenced, rejected or accepted without professional research,” she said.
“We cannot isolate ourselves as if we are an Island but also, we cannot accept everything brought to us. We cannot continue just reading about Covid-19 worldwide, yet Tanzania is all blank [sic]. It is incomprehensible.
“Tanzania needs to have its own understanding of where we stand on the issue of Covid-19.”
Tanzania last released data on the pandemic almost a year ago, which showed that the country had only 509 cases.
At the time, the late President John Magufuli said his country was free from Covid-19 while authorities encouraged local remedies such as steam therapy.
Magufuli’s government also said Tanzania would not procure vaccines despite the insistence of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the jab was necessary in curbing the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, a report by the World Bank estimates that Africa needs about US$12 billion to buy and distribute enough coronavirus vaccines to interrupt transmission of the virus.
A paper written with the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) also argues that G20 nations should extend their moratorium on debt repayments offered to the world’s poorest countries.
It says this should be done for another year, in response to the pandemic.
The World Bank and the
IMF are hosting their spring meetings this week to discuss vaccines, debt, economic recovery, climate change and more.