AfricaPress-Tanzania: SOME Members of Parliament have requested the government to consider subsidizing some Covid-19 protective gears as a way of enabling ordinary Tanzanians to access them.
The MPs were contributing to the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Elderly and Children’s budget estimates, which were tabled yesterday in the House.
They said majority Tanzanians were incapable of buying some protective gears which are sold at high prices.
According to the MPs, Tanzanians need support from the government and that one of the ways of helping them is for the government to subsidize the protective gears. Mbozi MP Pascal Haonga (Chadema) asked the government to make an intervention in the price for some equipment.
He said there was a need for reducing prices of sanitisers, facemasks and related items. He said a small 50ml tube of sanitiser was sold at 5000/- and that the amount was too high for farmers in villages.
“The government must find a way to help poor people who cannot afford buying such protective gears; as an MP, I wish to advise the government to help wananchi,” he said.
He asked the government to scrap tax on sanitiser and other protective gears that help to reduce or stop the spread of the deadly virus.
Kigoma South MP Husna Mwilima (CCM) asked the government to purchase an ambulance for Ilagala health centre so that patients, including Covid-19 victims could be moved to health facilities.
The MP also asked MPs to put politics aside and join hands in the battle against the novel virus.
“We need to join forces and support the government in this battle against the deadly virus,” she said.
Ms Mwilima also asked the government to consider allowing people to transport and bury their loved ones.
“I saw the way the former Mtwara District Commissioner, Evod Mmanda was buried recently; it was a painful experience. I am therefore asking the government to figure out if there could be a way for the relatives, under government guidance, to bury their loved ones,” she said.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai said the current system can trigger the spread of the virus if some measures will not be taken to address the problem.
He said there is a danger that some people might not take their sick relatives to hospitals, thinking they may not see them again, and by so doing, they will bury them clandestinely when they die, thereby deepening the problem.
“I believe the government will look into this matter; in case the relatives will be required to pay for some procedures, I think people will be ready,” he noted.
Special Seats MP Dr Immaculate Semesi (Chadema) asked the government, through the Ministry of Finance and Planning, to come up with an alternative budget that will help to solve social and economic implications which are caused by the scourge.
