NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania’s COVID-denying president is asking on residents for 3 days of prayer to defeat unnamed “respiratory illnesses” amid warnings that the nation is seeing a lethal resurgence in infections.
“Possibly now we have wronged God someplace,” populist President John Magufuli advised mourners at a funeral for his chief secretary, John Kijazi, on Friday. “Allow us to all repent.”
Magufuli has repeatedly claimed that Tanzania, a rustic of some 60 million folks, defeated COVID-19 with God’s assist. The federal government has not up to date its variety of coronavirus circumstances since April, and the well being ministry has promoted unproven natural cures. Magufuli has questioned COVID-19 vaccines with out providing proof.
However the native Catholic church, the U.S. Embassy and others have brazenly warned of a resurgence in circumstances. And this week the loss of life of the vice chairman of the semi-autonomous island area of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, introduced widespread consideration after his opposition political get together stated he had COVID-19.
Hamad’s loss of life is “a transparent image this pandemic is raging,“ the director of the Africa Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, John Nkengasong, advised reporters on Thursday.
Talking concerning the deaths of Hamad and Kijazi, Tanzania’s president requested the nation to stay calm.
“We managed to defeat these respiratory illnesses by way of prayer final yr. I’m positive we are going to achieve this this yr,” he stated within the nationally televised occasion.
Magufuli additionally introduced that Finance Minister Philip Mpango had been admitted to a hospital within the capital, Dodoma. He didn’t say why.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
