Dar Es Salaam - Coronavirus test kits used
in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli
on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on
samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.
Magufuli, whose government has already drawn criticism for
being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has
previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said
the kits had "technical errors".
The Covid-19 testing kits had been imported from abroad,
Magufuli said during an event in Chato in the north west of
Tanzania, although he did not give further details.
The president said he had instructed Tanzanian security
forces to check the quality of the kits. They had randomly
obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a
goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages.
These samples were then submitted to Tanzania's laboratory
to test for the coronavirus, with the lab technicians left
deliberately unaware of their origins.
Samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive for
Covid-19, the president said, adding this meant it was likely
that some people were being tested positive when in fact they
were not infected by the coronavirus.
"There is something happening. I said before we should not
accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation,"
Magufuli said, adding the kits should be investigated.
As of Sunday, Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19
and 17 deaths but unlike most other African countries, Dar es
Salaam sometimes goes for days without offering updates, with
the last bulletin on cases on Wednesday.
Magufuli also said that he was sending a plane to collect a
cure being promoted by Madagascar's president. The herbal mix
has not yet undergone internationally recognised scientific
testing.
"I'm communicating with Madagascar," he said during a
speech, adding: "They have got a medicine. We will send a flight
there and the medicine will be brought in the country so that
Tanzanians too can benefit."
Covid-19 infections and fatalities reported across Africa
have been relatively low compared with the United States, parts
of Asia and Europe. But Africa also has extremely low levels of
testing, with rates of only around 500 per million people.