President John Pombe Magufuli has cast doubt on the high numbers of coronavirus cases reported in Tanzania.
Magufuli says the officials must be inflating the numbers so as to target donor funds. Tanzania officially has 480 confirmed coronavirus infections - the most in East Africa.
The president says after doubting the high numbers, he secretly sent samples for testing to the National Influenza Laboratory (NIL) in Dar es Salaam. But unknown to NIL, Magufuli said today, the sent samples included those from birds, goats, pawpaw, jackfruit.
And dubiously, Magufuli said, the fruit and bird samples too tested positive for COVID-19. Magufuli said with such a discovery, he now highly doubts the 480 confirmed cases in Tanzania. Magufuli said either the test kits sent to Africa are 'faulty' or the officials have deliberately recorded even negative cases as positive.
Faulty COVID-19 testing kits are not a new issue in the coronavirus pandemic after Spain twice sent back defective testing kits back to China after they were found to have very low sensibility.
There are videos circulating on social media showing Tanzanian officials allegedly burying coronavirus victims in the dead of the night in an apparent government coverup. Tanzanian nationals on social media have too questioned the official figures, saying they are way lower than the actual cases and deaths.
The Tanzanian government has been criticised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its lax approach to the coronavirus pandemic still allows markets and public transport to operate normally.
Recent confirmed cases in Rwanda and Uganda have been reported mostly from Tanzanian truck drivers plying the East African trade routes. Truck drivers mostly from Tanzania account for 29 of Uganda's 88 confirmed cases.
Among Uganda's latest three COVID-19 cases recorded on Saturday, one is of a Tanzanian truck driver while the other was of a Ugandan returnee who sneaked into the country from Tanzania via Bukoba porous border point.
Uganda like Kenya, Rwanda are currently under lockdown and allow no travelling in and out of their countries except for United Nations, emergency and cargo crew.
Magufuli said he's even considering reopening the national football league that was suspended some weeks back because he has realised that people who engage in sports may not easily be affected by the coronavirus. Magufuli said in any case, he has realised that COVID-19 may have to live with humanity for a long time just like HIV/Aids.
He also announced that he will soon send a plane to Madagascar to fetch the herbal medicine there that is being touted as a 'cure' for coronavirus.
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina asked researchers to come up with a locally made cure for coronavirus. Rajoelina launched the 'cure' after being tested on about 20 people for three weeks claiming that two people had been completely cured by the COVID-Organics (CVO) treatment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no proof of a cure for Covid-19. Even the country's national medical academy (Anamem) has also cast doubt on the efficacy of the CVO produced from the artemisia plant, a source of an ingredient used in malaria treatment and is given out free of charge to the most vulnerable groups in Madagascar.
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