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Consequently, streets in Dar-es-Salaam and other Tanzanian towns were devoid of mask-wearing residents who frowned at anyone wearing the protective face cover.
Stadia would be full to the rafters as would busy shopping centres. At one point, Tanzanians even staged a Covid-19 eviction party.
Recently Tanzanian Opposition leader Tundu Lissu drew fire on Twitter for his updates on the health of President John Magufuli.
No stranger to controversy, Lissu tweeted that the Tanzanian head of state had been transferred to India after his condition worsened at a Nairobi hospital.
Standard Digital was unable to verify this claim.
Tanzania police also arrested a man, AP reported, for allegedly spreading false reports that Magufuli was seriously ill in the Kinondoni area of Dar es Salaam.
"There are a lot more who have been spreading false statements. We will arrest them all,” Kingai said, according to AP.
Personalities in Tanzania who have died recently
The first high-profile death was that Seif Sharif Hamad -Zanzibar’s First Vice President on February 17.
The government did not state the cause of the death but ACT-Wazalendo party said Hamad and his wife had tested positive for Covid-19.
Barely a week later, Prof Benno Ndulu, a former Bank of Tanzania Governor, died on February 22. Details on the cause of his death were scanty.
Other deaths, not necessarily of Covid-19, were those of:
- Benjamin Mkapa - Retired President
- Dr Servacius Likwelile - Former Finance and Planning permanent secretary
- Ambassador John Kijazi -Tanzania Chief Secretary
- Dr Muhammed Seif Khatib - A politician who held several ministerial positions during the administrations of former presidents Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete. Khatib died on Monday, February 15 in Unguja, Zanzibar.
- Atashasta Nditiye - Mohambwe Constituency MP and former Deputy Minister for Works. Nditiye died on February 12 at the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma.
- Bakari Mwampachu - Ex-minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
- Prof Gaudence Mpangala - Lecturer at Ruaha Catholic University, political analyst.
- Dr Peter Mamiro – Lecturer Sokoine University of Agriculture.
- Prof Delphina Mamiro - Lecturer Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Recently the Catholic Church in the country announced that 60 nuns and 25 priests had died in Tanzania in the last two months after showing symptoms of the coronavirus and warned the country to take Covid-19 precautions more seriously.