DODOMA – Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli is reportedly admitted in a Kenya hospital battling Covid-19 symptoms, PML Daily has learnt.
The Tanzania leader, who is known for rejecting the existence of the virus, has also reportedly not been seen in public in the last two weeks.
Kenya’s Daily Nation on Tuesday reported that an African leader is admitted to a Nairobi hospital, reportedly struggling to recover from COVID-19. However, the newspaper does not identify the leader, who is said to be on a ventilator.
Nevertheless, the newspaper goes ahead to give details about the laissez-faire attitude Tanzania has taken in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. It also mentions that the leader was last seen in public, launching mega-projects two weeks ago.
The only East African leader who has not been seen in public in the past two weeks is Magufuli.
Tanzania’s exiled opposition leader Tundu Lissu tretweeted the Nation story, saying he believed it was Magufuli that had been hospitalised.
“It’s a sad comment on his stewardship of our country that it’s come to this: that he himself got COVID-19 and flown out to Kenya in order to prove that prayers, steam inhalations and other unproven herbal concoctions he’s championed are no protection against coronavirus,” Tundu Lissu said.
Late last month, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reached out to COVID-19 skeptic Magufuli, promising to support the country’s health system.
Magufuli has ignored all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) recommended by the WHO, including use of masks, and believes COVID-19 can be fought using natural remedies and prayers. He at one time declared Tanzania COVID-19 free.
