Coronavirus cases in Tanzania have shot up to 147 after 53 people were confirmed to be positive in the last 24 hours.
This is according to Tanzania’s health Minister Ummy Mwalimu who said that 38 of the patients come from the business capital Dar es Salaam while others are from Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Kagera, Lindi, Zanzibar and Pwani regions.
This comes just as the country’s president John Pombe Magufuli declared three days of prayers .
On Friday,the Kenyan cases shot to 246 after it emerged that 12 more people have tested positive for the virus.
In a media briefing, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport when he received a consignment from the Jack Ma Foundation in Nairobi, Cabinet secretary of the ministry of health Mutahi Kagwe said that his ministry is fast-tracking the upscaling of testing.
“As we stand right now, at this hour, we have already tested about 450 samples out of this, we have already got 12 positive cases and we have not finished the day. “He said
“What this tells you is that we need to really start the testing capacity so that the contacts of those people who are positive can also be tested and therefore we can be able to contain the pandemic.”He added.
At the JKIA Kagwe was accompanied by Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and his transport counterpart James Macharia who received a consignment of medical supplies from China.
This is after President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency(KEMSA) to waive their debts to counties for three months so as to enable them to buy masks and personal protective equipment for their medical workers.
Counties captured in this initiative include coastal counties including TanaRiver, Taita Taveta, Mombasa, Kwand Kilifi.
The president also directed the release of five billion shillings to supplement counties’ budgets to fight the pandemic.
