Tanzanian officials deny Magufuli sick with Covid-19



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Tanzanian President John Magufuli is in good health and working normally, two officials said, after learning he had flown abroad in critical condition with Covid-19.

Magufuli, 61, is Africa’s most prominent coronavirus skeptic. He has not been seen in public since February 27.

Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who left for Belgium after contesting his electoral defeat to Magufuli last year, said the president was airlifted to the private hospital in Nairobi in neighboring Kenya, then in India in a coma.

However, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa denied this, blaming the account of “hate” Tanzanians living abroad. “Tanzanians should be at peace. Your president is there, in good health, he is working hard, ”he said in a speech after Friday prayers in the southern region of Njobe. “Spreading rumors that he is sick is only the result of hatred.”

Magufuli was busy working inside reviewing files, Majaliwa said, adding that he spoke to her by phone on Friday morning. “I decided to say this to give hope to Tanzanians that our president is there,” he said. “If he was sick, would I talk to him on the phone?” He sent you his greetings.

The Prime Minister’s remarks, along with similar comments by Tanzania’s Ambassador to Namibia, Modestus Kipilimba, were the first official reactions since concerns surfaced earlier this week.

“He is fine, he is continuing his work,” Kipilimba told Namibian national television station NBC. Neither NBC nor the Tanzanian state broadcaster showed a video of Magufuli in their reports.

The Tanzanian Minister of Information and the Minister of Justice this week threatened those who spread rumors of prison terms, without directly addressing the concerns.

The main opposition party Chadema called on Friday for an explanation of the president’s position.

“We urge the government to come out publicly and say where is the president and what is his condition?” Chadema’s secretary general, John Mnyika, told reporters in Dar-es-Salaam ahead of the prime minister’s comments.

‘The bulldozer’

Kenyan newspaper Nation quoted unidentified political and diplomatic sources on Wednesday as saying that an African leader, whom he did not name, was being treated for Covid-19 on a ventilator at Nairobi hospital. The hospital did not comment.

According to the constitution, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, 61, would take over for the remainder of the five-year term if the president was unable to perform his duties.

Dubbed “the bulldozer,” Magufuli frustrated the World Health Organization (WHO) during the pandemic by downplaying the threat of COVID-19, saying remedies such as steam inhalation would protect Tanzanians.

The former chemistry professor mocked coronavirus testing, denounced vaccines as part of a Western plot to take Africa’s wealth, and opposed wearing masks and social distancing .

He also insisted for months that COVID-19 had been repelled by prayer, refusing measures such as masks and locks. But last month he admitted he was still circulating after the semi-autonomous Zanzibar vice president was revealed to have died from the virus.

He also changed his position and encouraged those who wanted to wear masks to do so.

“The government has not banned the wearing of masks. But we have to be careful with the masks we wear. We will perish. Don’t think we’re loved so much. Economic warfare is bad, ”Magufuli told a congregation at a church service in Dar-es-Salaam last month.

He advised Tanzanians to make the masks themselves or use locally produced ones.

Several Tanzanian officials have recently died, while the finance minister appeared last month coughing and panting at a press conference outside a hospital to dispel rumors he had died of Covid-19.

Tanzania stopped reporting coronavirus data in May last year when it reported 509 cases and 21 deaths, according to the WHO, which has urged the government to be more transparent.

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