John Magufuli, President of Tanzania
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Tanzanian President John Magufuli says his country has eradicated the coronavirus “By the grace of God,” but he urged people to continue to take precautions, in a speech to a church congregation in the capital of Dodoma this Sunday.
The president attributed the result to the prayers of citizens and the efforts of local health officials and front-line healthcare workers.
Last week, the president said that in hospitals in the country’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, there were only four covid-19 patients left.
Tanzania has not released any data on coronavirus cases since April 29. At last count, there were 509 reported cases and 21 deaths in Tanzania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Africa.
How Tanzania Approached the Virus: Officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) have expressed concern about Tanzania’s lackluster application of social distancing and their decision to keep places of worship open.
In May, the Embassy of United States In Tanzania, it issued a health alert warning that the risk of contracting covid-19 was “extremely high” as hospitals in Dar es Salaam were “overwhelmed”.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Magufuli ruled out the severity of the coronavirus in Tanzania, urging its citizens to “pray for the coronavirus to go away,” believing that the “satanic virus cannot live in the body of Jesus Christ.” He blamed the growing number of positive cases on faulty test kits that he said registered animals and fruits as positive.
Tanzania has eased restrictions on the coronavirus as universities, high schools and international travel have reopened. Elementary and secondary schools remain closed.
On Sunday, Magufuli celebrated parishioners for not wearing masks, claiming that it was a sign that the country had overcome the coronavirus and that people were no longer afraid.
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