Tanzania’s Health Ministry has intimated that the country has no plans in place to procure COVID-19 vaccines, a few days after the Tanzanian President John Magufuli claimed that vaccinations against COVID-19 are dangerous.
Speaking at a press conference in the capital, Dodoma, Health Minister Dr Dorothy Gwajima said that, “the ministry has no plans to obtain vaccines for COVID-19,”insisting Tanzania is safe.
“The ministry has its own procedure on how to receive any medicines and we do so after we have satisfied ourselves with the product.”
She encouraged the public to improve hygiene practices including the use of sanitizers and steam inhalation — which has been dismissed by health experts as a way to kill the coronavirus.
Chief Government Chemist Fidelice Mafumiko also suggested the use of herbal medicine to cure COVID-19, without offering evidence at the conference.
Last week, President Magufuli questioned the efficacy of imported COVID tests and “inappropriate” vaccines in a speech in his hometown of Chato, in northwest Tanzania. The President who has long asserted that God has eliminated COVID-19 in Tanzania, rather urged people to pray to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
“Vaccinations are dangerous. If white people were able to come up with vaccinations, a vaccination for AIDS would have been found, a vaccination for tuberculosis could have eliminated it by now; a Malaria vaccine would have been found; a vaccination for cancer would have been found by now.”
He also warned the health ministry to be cautious with vaccines developed abroad because they had other motives behind.
Tanzania’s government has received widespread criticism for its approach to the pandemic. It has not updated its number of coronavirus infections which stands at 509 since April.
The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti has pressed Tanzania to share its data on infections, while the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director said that “if we do not fight this as a collective on the continent, we will be doomed.“
Authorities in Tanzania, from the Catholic Church to government institutions, are also pushing back and telling the public and employees that COVID-19 exists in the country and precautions must be taken.
In a letter addressed to church leaders, The Episcopal Conference (TEC) warned of a possible new wave of infections.
Additionally, TEC Secretary, Father Charles Kitima told the media that the Catholic Church had noticed an unusually sharp increase in the number of funeral services being held. He said that usually, there would be one or two requiem masses per week in urban parishes, but that now they were conducting the masses daily.
In response, Dr Gwajima called upon private, religious and political institutions to refrain from providing health information that does not follow the ministry’s guidelines.
“We have guidelines, because once these institutions provide such information, it brings shock. All these institutions we want to stop providing any information or make decisions.”
Whiles there are no official figures to indicate how widespread a potential resurgence of infections in the country might be, this week, leading opposition party ACT Wazalendo announced that party leader and Vice President of the semi-autonomous Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, was being treated for COVID-19.
It is not clear when any vaccines might arrive in Tanzania, though the East African country is eligible for the COVAX global effort aimed at delivering doses to low- and middle-income countries. Any vaccines must however receive ministry approval.
Plans
