In just a month, Tanzania went from having only 20 coronavirus cases recorded to 480 cases, an alarming increase which puts the country with the highest number of cases in East Africa. However, the country’s president John Magufuli is convinced the number may be exaggerated due to technical hiccups with the imported testing kits. From a report: Magufuli, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, said the testers had randomly obtained several non-human samples on animals and fruits which included a sheep, a goat and a pawpaw and the results came out positive. The samples were given human names and ages and were submitted to the country’s National Referral Laboratory to test for coronavirus without the lab technicians knowing the true identity of the samples. This apparently prompted Magufuli to believe some people who were tested positive for Covid-19 might not have contracted the novel virus after all.

“I have always raised my suspicions about how our national lab has been conducting the Covid-19 cases,” he said at an event in Chato in northern-western Tanzania. The president, who has ordered a probe into the country’s testing protocols, insinuated possible interference by unnamed saboteurs. But Tanzania has long been criticized by public health experts for enabling a more relaxed approach to the pandemic compared to the strict lockdowns and restrictions in neighboring East African countries. Instead Magufuli has asked Tanzanians to pray away the virus and left places of worship open since the Covid-19 outbreak began.

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Source: Slashdot – Tanzania’s President is Blaming the Sharp Rise of Coronavirus Cases on Faulty Testing Kits