New Tanzanian President Plans To Create Expert Team Marking Change In Coronavirus Policy

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2021) Tanzania's new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, announced on Tuesday intention to form a special team of experts to study COVID-19 issues and suggested remedies, marking a change in policy of late President John Magufuli, who had denied the existence of the coronavirus in the country.

"I am moved to set a technical committee to review the coronavirus issue. To examine global remedies scientifically and thereafter advise the government professionally. It is unwise to mute, reject or accept without conducting technical research," Suluhu Hassan said as quoted by the Daily news national newspaper.

Speaking after swearing in new and reshuffled permanent secretaries and deputies, she said that Tanzania cannot isolate itself amid the global struggle against the pandemic.

"We will carry out technical research, form a technical team to give us the scope for the problem and what is being proposed globally.

We want to know the efficacy of global remedies to the country. I am intending to take these measures on the covid," the president noted.

Magufuli died on March 17 at the age of 61 in a hospital in Dar es Salam. Then-Vice President Suluhu Hassan, who subsequently became the first female president of the East African country, said that Magufuli died after a decade-long struggle with heart disease. However, the country's opposition and Western media claimed that Magufuli had suffered from the coronavirus. The authorities have denied the reports.

Magufuli had consistently denied that there is COVID-19 in the country and encouraged citizens to pray and use herbal medicine as cure. Tanzania's health authorities also refused to purchase coronavirus vaccines.