Tanzania will soon start tallying coronavirus cases, more than a year after the late President John Pombe Magufuli declared the country coronavirus free.
On Tuesday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said she intends to form a committee of experts to professionally evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic so as to advise the government on the way forward.
“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 or rejected or accepted without professional research,” said President Suluhu.
“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, it is incomprehensible,” she added.
Tanzania needs to have a clear and understandable position regarding the pandemic so that it can make informed decisions, Tanzania’s Head of State said.
In view of that she said, Tanzania cannot rely on outside reports on the state of the pandemic while it has none.
“Tanzania needs to have its own understanding of where we stand on the issue of COVID-19,” she stressed.
According to Tanzania’s local daily, The Citizen, Tanzania last released data on COVID-19 more than a year ago with data then showing that Tanzania only had 509 cases.
Since then government adopted the approach that Tanzania was free from COVID-19 with authorities encouraging local remedies such as the steam therapy.
