Browsing: Coronavirus in Africa

Trade among East African Community (EAC) member has suffered a catastrophic blow losing USD380 million in the span of just a single week.

There is not an economy that has not taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic and the EAC trade bloc is no exception. While no official order has been issued to close their borders, each of the EAC member countries has limited all manner of movement, goods included.

Trucks are still going through to deliver goods but as Tanzania and Burundi agreed last week, the truck drivers would stay quarantined for 14 days. While for Kenya on the other hand, the country has chosen to escort the drivers and their tracks to their points of drop off and back, no detours allowed.

While cargo on transit has been forced to slow down to almost a snail pace, movement of people has come to a complete stop, if …

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is in East Africa, and has now penetrated Tanzania whereby until yesterday 12 (4 foreign national and 8 Tanzanian citizens) cases were reported.

Hence—unequivocally the Tanzanian government stated that almost 20 samples tested were negative, including the first patient.

According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic which has spread in more than 170 countries, taken more than 14,000 lives, and infected over 300,000 people.

Hence, this pandemic brought Tanzania President John Magufuli before the public, and addressed the nation of more than 55 million, to stay strong and be resilience through the outbreak.

The outbreak has also taken a toll on Tanzania’s economic landscape, hurting trade operations particularly between Tanzania and China of which their bilateral trade volumes stand at almost $3 billion.

Air Tanzania Company Limited has also seen a revenue loss of about 2 to 3 per cent, and just last week, the …

According to the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, All 27 people who came in contact with the first patients tested negative for Coronavirus.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has hit Tanzania, and it is taking a rather serious toll in the East African nation of more than 55 million people, forcing lifestyle choice to change and economic operations to shrink.

In the past weeks, Tanzania had no cases, but currently, there are 6 cases registered in Tanzania. Since the virus made its way to Tanzania, the government of Tanzania has instructed closure of schools, higher learning institutions, and rolled in precautionary measures to various sectors including transport and health.

The ministry of health revealed on 18 March 2020, that the task force tracked all contacts related to the patient, of which have now risen to 27, and tested negative for COVID-19

Since the first case broke, Tanzania has seen a stark rise in hand-sanitizer …

 The Tanzanian Ministry of Health has announced the presence of the first case of the coronavirus on Monday, March 16.

The case was found in Northern part of Tanzania, on a female Tanzanian patient, 46-year-old, who arrived in the country on March from Belgium onboard RwandAir plane and landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) on March 15.

The patient also visited Sweden and Denmark between March 3 and 13, before her return to Tanzania.

Despite Tanzania being prepared with thermal scanners installed in all airports, the patient passed the health checks undetected, as her body temperature was at the normal level, hence—the condition was not detected

According to the minister of health Ummy Mwalimu, the patient was sceptical of her health even after being cleared.

“From what she told me on the phone, while in Belgium, she lived in a home where the owner had suffered from the coronavirus,” the …

The deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) which has now spread over 60, with 93,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths in China, is projected to hurt the African airline landscape, taking away $40 million in revenue.

At the moment, Africa has witnessed confirmed cases in Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

The outbreak has made big-industrial players such as British Airlines, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific to trim their routes to various destination, including northern Italy, South East Asia, to evade further trouble with the virus.

On that line, African airlines have taken their own path to curb the scenario, as Tanzania’s emerging airline halted its scheduled flights to China, Kenya’s court order made Kenya Airways postpone flights to China, and Rwanda did the same.

However, Ethiopia faced criticism for not realizing the flights’ cancellation to China, like its fellow players.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global aviation …

The world is on its heels as the coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken superpowers and developing nations hostage, limiting aerial movements, limiting large congregations, and drawing billions into containment plans. With all that in the fold, what has Tanzania installed to contain the virus outbreak ripples?

It is crucial to say China and Tanzania relations are historic, dating back to the 1960s. Prior to the virus outbreak, China and Tanzania had vibrant trading interactions, with bilateral trade volume reaching $3.976 billion according to the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania.

Both China and Tanzania (Ministry of Industries and Trade) have confessed to a serious downturn in trade following the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Ministry of Health Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, assured the nation that, Tanzania has no case of coronavirus and it is taking serious measures to keep the situation that way.

However, taking the health landscape into account, still—Tanzania lags …