Tanzania responds to 'unknown' Covid classification by CDC

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is safe, Health ministry has assured, questioning the rationale behind a recent rank by the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In its latest rankings published on June 6, 2022, the CDC described Tanzania and other countries as countries with unknown risk of Covid-19 infection.

The CDC discourages American travellers from travelling to such destinations because the risks are unknown.

But this comes at a time when the Tanzanian government noted it has done a lot with regard to disbursing information regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, including routine release of data on the disease and administration of vaccines to its populations.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who ascended to office on March 19, 2021, took an open stance on the country’s fight against the pandemic.

After almost one year of secrecy, the government released figures on coronavirus in June last year and had been doing so since then.

President Hassan also said in June last year that the country had budgeted $470 million to buy Covid-19 vaccine in what marked a sharp turn from her predecessor John Magufuli who had openly downplayed the pandemic.

Responding to the CDC’s ranking, Chief Medical Officer Aifello Sichalwe said Tanzania was safe and that Tanzanians were increasingly adhering to Covid-19 protection measures and that the spread of virus was largely controlled.

“We have seen the story on CNN which was published on June 6, 2022. Our Ministry is in contact with the CDC’s offices in Tanzania to find out the reasons for that rank,” he said.

He said Covid-19 has been effectively contained in Tanzania despite reports that coronavirus spread was rising in certain countries.

“I would like to inform the public that Covid-19 infections in our country have largely been controlled. We, however, gather information that there has been an increase in new infections in various other countries around the world,” he said.

In September last year, Tanzania started reporting limited aggregated weekly numbers to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Report from WHO showed that in Tanzania, from January 3, 2020 to June 7, 2022, there have been 33,928 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 803 deaths. As of 21 May 2022, a total of 7,967,468 vaccine doses have been received.

Dr Sichalwe said the country was safe and that it continued to adhere to all the Covid-19 preventive measures, including vaccination that has been proven to prevent serious illness and even death.