Tanzania: WHO Regional Director urges to 'ramp up public health measures,' says vaccines work

Matshidiso Moeti, the Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa, has urged the people of Tanzania to ramp up health measures against COVID-19 reassuring the validity of the vaccine, according to a report by Tuko.

Followed by the advice to not rush to COVID-19 vaccines by John Magufuli, the President of Tanzania, the WHO regional director urged to not be laid back about the pandemic. Claiming to "stand firm. Vaccines are not a good thing," the president reportedly addressed a gathering in Chato earlier on Wednesday.

In a response to the claims, Moeti stresses the capabilities of science in a tweet on Thursday.

Urging #Tanzania to ramp up public health measures such as wearing masks to fight #COVID19. Science shows that #VaccinesWork and I encourage the government to prepare for a COVID vaccination campaign. @WHO is here to support the government and people of Tanzania.

— Dr Matshidiso Moeti (@MoetiTshidi) January 28, 2021

However, Aidan Eyakuze, the Executive Director of Twaweza East Africa, has warned that the country's status on COVID-19 claims can cause some serious consequences to its economic strata. As he writes in his opinion piece, "f COVID-19 is treated as a national irrelevance here there would seem to be no urgent reason for Tanzania's authorities to rush to obtain the vaccine to inoculate citizens, or to mitigate any negative economic consequences".

Claimed as "COVID-19 free," ever since its last update on COVID-19 on May 2020, the country has not updated any official data after that.

Magufuli has also claimed that some of the natives who went to foreign lands to get vaccinated had returned with "a strange form of coronavirus."