Tanzania has announced that the number of COVID-19 has jumped to 480 after 196 people tested positive of the novel coronavirus.
The country’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the country had also registered six more deaths bringing the number of fatalities to 16 since the virus was first recorded in Tanzania.
The development saw Tanzania the leading country in coronavirus cases, overtaking Kenya which has 374 confirmed cases as on Tuesday April 28th. Rwanda has 207 cases while Uganda has 79 confirmed cases – 14 of them being Kenyan and Tanzanian truck drivers.
Tanzania had been criticized for its lax measures against Covid19 after its President, John Pombe Magufuli allowed churches to continue operating arguing that the coronavirus would not survive in a church or a mosque.
Uganda, which has a total lock down, that has seen less cases recorded in the country compared to its neighbors.
The country has 79 cases, out of which 42 have recovered and been discharged from hospital.
The situation in Tanzania is feared to be getting out of hand due to the lack of social distancing and the slow manner information relating to the disease has been shared.
On Wednesday, Sonkonews counted at least ten deaths of prominent Tanzanian personalities in the last seventy hours.
The deaths were reported as emanating from other causes despite some of the victims having coronavirus symptoms.
Tanzanian civil society activists have accused the country’s authorities of covering up some of the Covid19 deaths in order to protect Magufuli’s controversial decision to refuse to order social distancing measures.
