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Grieving relatives of Covid-19 victims, health experts and opposition politicians in Tanzania have accused President John Magufuli of causing thousands of deaths in the East African country and to undermine the fight against the pandemic across the continent.
Magufuli has denied the local spread of Covid-19 in Tanzania, discouraged mention of the disease by health workers, rejected most conventional measures in favor of prayer and said vaccines are dangerous, without providing any evidence.
Despite repeated requests from the World Health Organization, Tanzania has not released any statistics on Covid-19 cases since May, when it recorded 509, and has no screening program.
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Experts fear that Magufuli’s policies allow Tanzania to act as a source of infections and new variants, which could spread across Africa and beyond.
The WHO last week called on Tanzania to protect not only its 58 million citizens, but neighboring countries as well.
“This situation remains very worrying. Covid-19 is a serious illness that can cause serious illness and even death. National authorities around the world must do all they can to protect people and save lives, ”said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Burials in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, and on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar told the Observer they face an unprecedented demand. Churches have said priests hold more funeral services than “in living memory”.
Doctors said hospitals were overwhelmed, with a severe shortage of beds and oxygen.
“We have elderly patients coming in showing all the symptoms that we’ve seen around the world but can’t test… we’re not even allowed to mention Covid-19. We have to call it pneumonia, ”said a doctor, who requested anonymity for fear of being punished by employers and authorities.
82-year-old Farida Saidi’s father died this month in a hospital in Dar es Salaam. His relatives could not find a bed in an intensive care unit because all were full.
“They said we can only keep him where he is and hope for the best. They called it pneumonia but said, “Your father suffers from the same problem that everyone is facing everywhere,” “Saidi said.
“Since January, we have lost six members of our family. On my WhatsApp there are only messages and messages about people dying. They all have the same symptoms: difficulty breathing, fever, loss of taste. It is desperate.
Saidi said Magufuli’s policies have cost lives.
“I wouldn’t want anyone watching their father die like me. This is so wrong.
Zitto Kabwe, leader of the opposition ACT-Wazalendo party, said his party called on its members to document and report all deaths from an alleged Covid-19 so it can hold the government to account.
“We have no data. There is no test, so it is very difficult to cut the transmission. Local media were even afraid to mention Covid-19. We just see that the hospitals are full, ”he said.
A second wave, fueled by a more transmissible variant of the virus that originated in South Africa, pushed infections across the continent to 3.8 million, with more than 100,000 deaths. The total is believed to be a significant underestimate.
The extent of an outbreak in Tanzania is unclear, but South Africa, which has roughly the same population, has suffered nearly 50,000 deaths from Covid-19, official statistics show, and well others according to the excess mortality figures.
Last month, Tanzanian government spokesman Hassan Abbasi told Reuters that although the country was not entirely free from coronavirus, it had “controlled” the disease.
“There are people who mix with the global world. But we don’t have local transmissions. That’s why you see everything is open, universities, sports, the arts, markets, and you haven’t heard that anyone has collapsed publicly, ”Abbasi said.
A doctor at the Zanzibar Coronavirus Testing Center said more than 80 cases had been recorded on the island from mid-December to early January. “But we are not allowed to release the data,” the doctor said. “We are saving it for future use.”
The increase in cases has led to mixed messages from the government.
Zanzibar’s health ministry last week released a public announcement asking people to avoid gatherings and “rush to a nearby hospital for tests if you feel you are having difficulty breathing.”
But officials denied it was because of Covid-19, saying they wanted to encourage people to take precautions as the number of people with breathing difficulties increases.
Health ministry official Mabula Mchembe visited hospitals in Dar es Salaam and stressed that there were no coronavirus patients, just “rumors that could cause unnecessary panic” .
Immunization programs are currently underway or planned in most African countries, but not in Tanzania.
In late January, Magufuli, who won a second term in October in an election marred by violence and allegations of fraud, said prayers, inhaling steam or herbal remedies were better than “dangerous” foreign vaccines.
In the face of international pressure and after the death of a series of senior officials, there has been a change in the past two weeks.
Magufuli recently attributed the death of the civil service chief to “respiratory disease”, and state media have started calling on Tanzanians to wear masks and wash their hands.
“I cannot say that there is hope,” said Kabwe, the opposition leader. “It’s too late now, the spread at the community level is so widespread. “How many people have to die before the government accepts the obvious?”
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