- Tanzanian President John Magufuli has actually not been seen for 17 days, prompting rumors about his health.
- Magufuli stated Tanzania Covid-free last May and stopped releasing data. He has turned down vaccines.
- Media reports and claims from an opposition figure have actually fed reports he is seriously ill with Covid-19
- See more stories on Expert’s business page
Dar es Salaam– Tanzanian President John Magufuli, Africa’s most prominent Covid-19 denier, disappeared from public sight 17 days earlier. Now, he is commonly rumored to be seriously ill with the very same virus that he has dismissed and minimized over the past year.
Last Might, Magufuli declared that “Tanzania has actually beaten coronavirus” after buying three days of national prayer. The president quickly stopped upgrading the variety of cases, and ensured foreign tourists that Tanzania’s game parks and Indian Ocean resorts were open for business, resulting in a wave of travel advisories cautioning travelers to prevent the country.
Ever Since, he has scoffed at using masks, criticized regional neighbours for imposing lockdowns, and rejected coronavirus vaccines up until his federal government independently validates them. In early January, Magufuli told the checking out Chinese foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, that “there is no coronavirus in Tanzania.”
Then, after appearing at an occasion in Tanzania’s industrial capital Dar es Salaam on Feb. 24, Magufuli disappeared from public view.
Within hours, speculation was rife that Magufuli had been secretly flown to Nairobi for emergency medical attention and later airlifted for treatment in India.
” Latest upgrade from Nairobi,” Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu tweeted this week.
” Over the past month, the nation has lost university professors, army generals, medical professionals, lawyers, engineers and other professionals of high public standing,” Lissu told Insider.
ERICKY BONIPHACE/AFP via Getty Images.
” President Magufuli remains in good health and continues to carry on with his normal responsibilities,” Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa stated in a statement from his office. “I talked to him (Magufuli) today and he sends his greetings to you,” Majaliwa firmly insisted.
In a separate announcement, the commissioner of the southern Tanzanian area of Mbeya, Albert Chalamila, told journalists on Friday: “I spoke with President John Magufuli on the phone today … he is really strong and is continuing with his job.”
” WE WANT AN EXPLANATION, NOT THREATS”
Tanzania confirmed its very first coronavirus case in March 2020, however a month later Magufuli– who has a PhD in chemistry– questioned the accuracy of the test results. Cumulative cases had actually reached 480 individuals and 16 had been reported dead from the coronavirus by April 29, however Magufuli bought the nation’s Health Ministry to stop releasing updates.
On Feb. 27, 3 days after his last public appearance, the government revealed that Magufuli had commanded the swearing in of a senior public authorities and attended a virtual regional summit for the East African Community (EAC) trade bloc.
It was later exposed that Magufuli did not, in truth, go to the EAC summit after all, and was instead represented by his Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Ever Since, Magufuli has remained notably missing from public view, missing his customary Sunday church presence for two consecutive weeks, an oddity for the devout Catholic.
AFP through Getty Images.
” Rather of telling us the fact about Magufuli’s location, federal government ministers have actually been providing dangers against social media users.
The death last month of Zanzibar’s first vice president, Seif Sharif Hamad, days after he revealed he was hospitalized with the virus, and the death of Magufuli’s chief secretary at State Home and head of the civil service, John Kijazi, from an unspecified illness exposed what numerous worries was the true degree of the pandemic.
” I restore my require Tanzania to start reporting COVID-19 cases and share data,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Feb.20 “I likewise get in touch with Tanzania to carry out the general public health procedures that we know work in breaking the chains of transmission, and to get ready for vaccination.”
There have actually been reports of local health centers being overrun by patients displaying Covid-19 signs, and lacks of critical care beds, oxygen and ventilators throughout significant towns and cities in the nation. The federal government denies these reports.
Unlike other East African countries, which have actually advised social distancing and motivated using masks, it’s been service as typical in Tanzania. Public buses are crowded with passengers, with couple of wearing masks, while clubs and night clubs have actually been full of revelers. Local league matches at football stadiums and music festivals are ongoing across the country, generally packed to capability.
ERICKY BONIPHACE/AFP via Getty Images.
Magufuli has continued to shun contemporary medicine and prevention approaches such as using masks and social distancing. Rather, he has aggressively promoted unproven traditional remedies such as steam inhalation and a ginger-garlic-onion-lemon beverage as the government’s main line of treatment and prevention versus the infection.
Under his management, the government has actually arrested opposition leaders and activists and minimal demonstrations.
In January, Magufuli turned down coronavirus vaccines as other countries around the world scrambled for the shots, saying he will not allow his compatriots to be used as guinea pigs.
STR/AFP via Getty Images.
The government’s chief representative, Hassan Abbasi, last month backtracked from claims that Tanzania was infection complimentary, altering the brand-new official story to “we have managed the infection.”
Roman Catholic and Lutheran church leaders have in recent weeks begun pushing back versus Magufuli’s infection denialism, prompting the federal government to take the disease seriously.
Early this month, Charles Kitima, who leads an association of Catholic bishops, informed journalists in Dar es Salaam that more than 25 priests and 60 nuns had actually passed away throughout the country within the last two months due to different causes, including “breathing troubles,” which has become a euphemism for coronavirus.
Lissu, the opposition leader, has actually taken advantage of the minute.
” It’s a sad talk about (Magufuli’s) stewardship of our country that it’s pertained to this: that he himself had to get COVID-19 and be flown out to Kenya in order to prove that prayers, steam inhalations and other unverified natural mixtures he’s promoted are no security against coronavirus,” he stated on Twitter.
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