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Tanzanian president asks Catholic bishops for help to fight COVID-19

President Samia Hassan’s request marks a sharp turn from her predecessor who declared that Tanzania had defeated the pandemic through prayer

La Croix International

The Tanzanian president has praised the Catholic Church for its role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic after the East West African country released coronavirus figures for the first time in more than a year. 

"Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church has played a very important role in the fight against this disease,” said President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was sworn-in mid-March.

The government actions mark a sharp turn from Hassan’s predecessor, the late John Magufuli, who died from a “longstanding heart condition” March 18. Under his rule, the East African country of 60 million people had been denying existence of the virus within its borders.

President Hassan said June 28 that Tanzania recorded 100 infections in recent days, and 70 patients are in need of oxygen. 

Addressing the Bishops’ Conference of Tanzania (TEC) June 25, the president warned of the outbreak of a third wave in the country.

"We already have patients diagnosed with the virus,” she told the bishops at the Catholic Secretariat of Kurasini in Dar es Salaam, largest city and former capital of Tanzania. 

Hassan urged the bishops to remind the faithful to protect themselves and follow the precautions suggested by health experts. 

"Now that we find ourselves facing the third wave, it is important not to let go,” the president told the bishops. 

She recently visited the Mwananyamala hospital in Dar es Salaam where coronavirus infected patients are undergoing treatment.

A week ago, the health ministry warned citizens of the third wave of COVID-19 infection spreading across the country.  

During his rule, Magufuli refused to implement preventive measures, denied the presence of the virus and downplayed its severity.

Tanzania joined June 14 the World Health Organization-backed COVAX facility that helps lower-income countries with the vaccine.

The country has now set aside US$470 million to import COVID-19 vaccines from abroad.

According to the government, vaccines will be administered on a voluntary basis. "Any Tanzanian who wants to be inoculated will be inoculated," Hassan said.

A WHO spokesman said Tanzania would receive its first vaccines in the coming weeks.

Currently, there is no vaccination program in Tanzania. 

"It is important to pray to God to continue to protect us,” Hassan told the bishops while asking citizens and religious leaders to create awareness and take appropriate actions among the public on COVID-19.  

In June last year, Magufuli declared that Tanzania had defeated the pandemic through prayer and imposed a ban on testing for COVID-19.

Doctors in state-run hospitals were barred from wearing face masks and were asked to attribute infections and deaths to pneumonia, heart disease or other ailments.  

President since 2015, Magufuli died after a mysterious absence of three weeks. It was officially announced that the 61-year-old Magufuli died due to heart complications.

The TEC had repeatedly urged the government to officially accept the prevalence of COVID-19 in the country. 

“We must defend ourselves", the bishops had warned in January.

In February, TEC president Archbishop Gervais Nyaisonga of Mbeya had flayed the government for denying that the country was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The fact that we have known about the virus since 2020 leads some to think that Tanzania is an island that cannot be touched,” he said.

The Church had to pay a heavy price as many priests, nuns and healthcare professionals fell victims to the pandemic in the country, where Catholics form 20 percent of the population.

In two months, more than 25 priests, 60 nuns and other healthcare professionals died in Tanzania, said Father Charles Kitima, TEC secretary general, in March.

Something like this has never occurred “in such a short space of time,” the priest added. 

Tanzania was one of the prominent African nations to shun COVID-19 vaccinations, leaving Eritrea and Burundi as the only holdouts in the African continent.

Under Hassan, the government has set up more testing centers and the president herself appears in public with a face mask. 

The government now asks citizens to follow social distancing norms and insists on wearing masks in public places.

On June 4, the government allowed foreign embassies and international missions in the country to import COVID-19 vaccines for their staff.