Tanzania: No Plan to Halt China Flights

The government said yesterday it has no plans to suspend flights from China, as it vowed to intensify preventive and preparedness measures in response to a growing and deadly coronavirus outbreak.

According to the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) the focus remains on strengthening preventive measures for the passengers jetting in the country.

President John Magufuli cuts a ribbon to inaugurates the newly purchased two aircraft at Julius Nyerere International Airport (file photo). Photo: State House/Daily News

 

The Authority was optimistic that the risk of spread of the novel coronavirus is minimal on the

ground that there are no direct flights between Tanzania and China.

"Passengers destined to Tanzanian pass through some secondary screening, which minimizes the risks of spreading the disease to Tanzania," said TCAA Director General Mr Hamza Johari (pictured).

He was briefing reporters shortly after opening the Collaborative Arrangement for Prevention and Management of Public Health Event in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) which brought together international aviation agents, ground handling companies, Immigration officers, aviation security officers and experts from the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (Mo- HCDEC).

The TCAA boss noted that even though there was neither ban of flights nor on passengers from China, the government was wide alert, following closely daily development of disease by monitoring visitors and closely tracking their movement while in the country.

"Trained and equipped health experts are screening arrivals at the international airports, they provide information on where they come from and those of the places they visit in the country for close tracking and monitoring so that in case of any changes, it may be easy to take right measures of quarantining them," stated Mr Johari.

He said that the government has already dispatched a standby ambulance at Julius Nyerere airport, gloves and disinfectant for protecting airport workers who are in close contact with international arriving passengers.

The government has continued to intensify efforts to stop the virus from crossing the country's borders while beefing up preparedness in case of an outbreak.

Until yesterday evening reports had it that the pandemic had spread in 80 countries in the world, including four in Africa.

There were almost 93,000 cases globally, of which more than 80,000 were in China.

Some 2,946 people have died in China, with more than 166 fatalities elsewhere.

"These statistics tell us how the disease continues to spread globally and call for intensified measures to prevent its outbreak in the country," said the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender Elderly and Children Ms Ummy Mwalimu.

Addressing religious leaders in Dar es Salaam yesterday during an orientation Seminar on Ebola and Covid -19 preparedness, prevention and response in Tanzania, Ms Mwalimu said that the government has put in place various preventive and preparedness measures since the outbreak of the disease in January this year.

The seminar was organised by the ministry in partnership with Tanzania Interfaith Partnerships (TIP) with the aim of engaging faith leaders in preparing against the risk of COVID -19.

She stressed that there was neither suspected nor confirmed case of coronavirus in the country, adding that the government was taking all possible interventions to prevent the disease from making its way into the country.

The minister, as part of the interventions, directed all private health facilities in the country to allocate special isolation units for suspected patients.

She said in most cases, patients go to private hospitals before they're transferred to government health facilities; hence it was important for the private facilities to have special isolation units for the patients.

The minister also directed the private healthcare facilities to report to the ministry immediately in case they have received a patient with symptoms of the viral disease as per International Health Regulations.

Ms Mwalimu also issued a five- hour ultimatum to the district councils which were yet to submit names for centres allocated for suspected patients as of yesterday evening to ensure they submit the list to her ministry.

The centres, she said were crucial for keeping suspected patients within the district because it was impossible to transfer them to the regional centres.

"I am giving five hours until 10 pm today (yesterday) for district councils in the country to ensure that they allocate special areas for suspected patients and report immediately to the ministry for further actions.

On the other hand, Ms Mwalimu said religious leaders have an important role to play in educating their followers on preventive measures.

"We request religious leaders to disseminate the knowledge acquired to your followers so that they can observe health rules and avoid direct contact with people infected with flue and those who recently travelled to the countries with coronavirus cases," she said.

Giving updates on the outbreak, WHO Country Representative, Dr Tigest Ketsela Mengestu said more and more countries were reporting coronavirus infections, a situation that posed an increased risk of onward spread and calls on all countries, including Tanzania to prepare for possibility of COVID- 19 cases.

Ms Mengestu hailed the government's efforts to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.