As the vaccine race rages on, Tanzania refuses to take part. While urging the population to respect hygiene measures and opt for popular medicine, the Minister of Health announced that the country did not plan to receive vaccines against Covid-19.
Tanzania is strengthening its anti-vaccine position in the context of the global fight against the coronavirus.
“The ministry does not plan to receive vaccines against the coronavirus,” Minister of Health Dorothy Gwajima said on February 2 at a press conference in the capital Dodoma.
However, the country is included in the Covax initiative to deliver vaccines to low and middle-income countries.
While stressing that the situation was safe there, the minister called on her compatriots to do gymnastics, rest, and use folk medicine, many traditional remedies against Covid-19 having already been recorded.
One is made from ginger, onion, lemon, and pepper.
Dorothy Gwajima, however, emphasized the importance of respecting hygiene, washing hands, and disinfecting them.
Spared thanks to God
President John Magufuli has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the epidemic.
According to the World Health Organization, Tanzania has not updated figures on the number of cases and deaths since May 2020. A total of 509 cases have been identified, including 21 deaths.
Last week, the head of state said that the Covid-19 vaccines were “inappropriate”, even as the first major deliveries begin to arrive on the African continent.
“We have to be very careful with these imported vaccines,” he said.
He also claims to have himself secretly tested a goat, a quail, and papaya, but to his great astonishment, the results were positive. He, therefore, questions the reliability of these tests.
