Tanzania: goat, paw paw, jackfruit test positive for coronavirus [Morning Call]

There has been a top and controversial sacking in Tanzania. Head of the country’s national health laboratory in charge of coronavirus testing was suspended, a day after President John Magufuli questioned the accuracy of the tests.

On Sunday President Magufuli, who has consistently downplayed the effect of the virus shocked the world when he said animals, fruits and vehicle oil had been secretly tested at the laboratory. Now, take a read at some of the specific things he said had been tested. A papaya, a quail and a goat. All of them he says had been found to be positive to Covid-19.

Magufuli cast doubt on the credibility of laboratory equipment and technicians and questioned official data on the pandemic. He called for an investigation into what he suspected to be a “dirty game” in the laboratory. Where the kits had been imported from though, he would not say. So, the lab director here Nyambura Moremi has been fired. And a 10-person committee has been formed to investigate the laboratory’s operations, including its process of collecting and testing samples. Presently, that is, as of the 5th of May, Tanzania has about 480 Covid-19 cases including 16 deaths.

Now there is so much to talk about in this story and generally on Tanzania’s approach to coronavirus. This morning we’ll take a quick look at the suspension of the lab director. With Jerry Bambi is Fatma Karume, a human rights activist from Dar es Salam

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