14 truck drivers test positive for COVID-19 in East Africa

After Tanzanian president John Pombe Magufuli allowed churches to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the coronavirus would not survive in church or mosque, the number of Covid-19 cases has jumped to 480 from 284, Pulse Live Kenya reported.

The development saw Tanzania overtaking Kenya, which had 374 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. Rwanda has 207 cases, while Uganda has 79 confirmed cases, with 14 of them being Kenyan and Tanzanian truck drivers.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said Tanzania had also recorded six more deaths, bringing the number of deaths to 16 since the virus was first recorded in the East African country.

Uganda, which has implemented a total lockdown, has seen fewer cases recorded in the country compared to its neighbours.

The situation in Tanzania is feared to be getting out of hand because of the lack of physical distancing and the slow distribution of information on the disease.

On Wednesday, Pulse Live Kenya counted at least 10 deaths of prominent Tanzanian personalities in the past 70 hours.

The deaths were reported as being attributed to other causes despite some of the victims showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

Tanzanian civil society activists have accused the country’s authorities of covering up some of the Covid-19 deaths in order to protect Magufuli’s controversial decision to refuse to order physical distancing measures.

Majaliwa urged citizens to stop disseminating false information on the deaths because not every death has to be related to Covid-19.

The developments in Tanzania have negative impacts not only in East Africa but even down here in South Africa as our truck drivers meet in DRC and Zambia so often.

At the time of publishing, no South African truck driver had been infected but if the situation does not change in Tanzania, that may change.

SA Trucker reported about another truck driver who died in the DRC, he was suspected to have died from COVID-19, however, that has not been confirmed.