For months Tanzania's government insisted the country was free from Covid-19. The late President John Magufuli, who succumbed to 'chronic atrial fibrillation', according to President Samia Suluhu Hassan, repeatedly downplayed the pandemic. The country was, however, recording infections and deaths as indicated in the timeline below:
March 16, 2020: Tanzania announces first case of Covid-19 – a 46-year-old man who had come back home from Belgium.