Tanzania war on killer virus gets Sh2.3 billion US boost

Dar es Salaam. The United States government yesterday announced Sh2.3 billion ($1 million) financial assistance for Tanzania to intensify interventions against the Covid-19 pandemic - even as the government says a third coronavirus patient has recovered.

With only 20 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country so far, Tanzania is nonetheless facing a major public health crisis that is likely to ravage the economy and weaken healthcare systems. This is unless urgent measures are taken to contain the malady.

The US Embassy in Dar es Salaam said in a statement that the funding would help to provide risk communication, water and sanitation, infection prevention and control, as well as other public healthcare products and services.

“Along with the US private sector, Americans will continue leading in responding to this pandemic,” the statement reads in part.

As the US announced the assistance yesterday, cases of Covid-19 continued escalating in Africa, prompting the World Health Organisation’s Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, to call for more pragmatic action and institution of measures that help people in the region who live in crowded conditions or work in the informal sector and need to earn money daily to survive.

She said it is important that countries make provisions to ensure that people can still access essential services.

The WHO further said that, with more than 6,000 Covid-19 cases in Africa, the virus is threatening fragile healthcare systems on the continent. Infections are increasingly spreading not only among African countries but within different localities in the hardest-hit countries.

Meanwhile, reports on social media yesterday that the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, has written to President John Magufuli, thanking him for current efforts to limit the scale and impact of the pandemic, but also requesting his support in catalysing an urgently needed, extensive societal ‘movement’ to stop this disease as rapidly as possible.

The letter, which the director of Presidential Communications, Mr Gerson Msigwa, neither denied nor confirmed receiving when approached by The Citizen yesterday, detailed measures which WHO wishes the President to take to tackle the pandemic.

Dr Ghebreyesus said in the letter dated March 23, 2020 that certain countries have not had any cases of Covid-19, yet others have identified sporadic infections, limited clusters, ir have documented community transmission.

“In writing this letter, I would like to summarize a series of fundamental actions that require your leadership, and that are needed if the world is to overcome this global health crisis that will mark our generation – irrespective of the stage of the outbreak in your country,’’ he said in the letter copied to the minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, the minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, and the Permanent Mission of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

“Your political leadership is indispensable, and can be leveraged through a coordinated, capacitated and operationalized response strategy,’ said the letter detailing some of the measures that should be taken.

“Your Excellency, your personal engagement is needed to mobilize communities and catalyze a societal movement to combat Covid-19. Amplifying your voice and presence through prominent multimedia channels, and equipping your citizenry with evidence-based guidance and a clear understanding of the action needed by means of regular addresses to the nation, will prove invaluable,’’ the latter further urged.

Yesterday, Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu thanked members of the public for adhering to directives of health experts about protecting themselves against infections of the coronavirus disease, specifically by using running water to wash hands with soap.

She called upon the members of the public to keep avoiding unnecessary gatherings and congestions so as to avoid infections.

“I call upon you to keep a distance of one metre or more between one person and another to stem more infections.

In another development, Health minister Mwalimu has handed over protective gear to the Tanzania Police Force and Tanzania Prisons Service to fight infection by the coronavirus when providing services to society.

The protective gear has been donated by the Jack Ma Foundation of China.

Apart from 90 percent of protective gear being directed towards medical personnel at different health service centres in the country, she said the government’s priority has been to protect health service providers.

“The other day we heard what the president of the Medical Association of Tanzania said, and I also want to use this opportunity to reaffirm our assurance that we, as a government, will continue to protect health service providers against infections when they provide services to patients,” said the minister.