Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has approved 3bn/- to facilitate the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to conduct research and develop Tanzanian vaccines for covid-19.
Moreover, NIMR has also continued doing research on traditional medicines, aiming at coming up with herbals that would treat not only covid-19 but also other diseases.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Deputy Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Godwin Mollel, said the government also dished out money for the construction of laboratories for testing Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.
He gave the response when answering a supplementary question from Ms Halima Mdee, who wanted to know measures that are in place to have the needed number of laboratories so that people can know their Covid-19 status before contracting the disease.
Dr Mollel mentioned that the laboratories that will be constructed are for Bugando Hospital where 4bn/- has been injected and another 14bn/ – for Kibongoto Hospital.
In the same occasion, he said the government has spent 158bn/- in a number of interventions meant to address coronavirus pandemic.
He said the fund was being used to buy a number of protective gears to deal with Covid-19, including construction of 19 oxygen production plants with a capacity of producing between 200 and 300 gas-cylinders a day.
Dr Mollel said out of the 19-oxygen plants, seven are operational and 12 are still under construction. The money was also spent on purchasing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), drugs, equipment, medical appliances and 105 medical ambulances.
He gave the revelations in response to a basic question by Halima Mdee (Chadema Special Seats), who wanted to know the amount that the government has spent as of October 25, this year.
Ms Mdee also wanted to know the number of patients and deaths from Covid-19 and the reason behind high prices of testing Covid-19 as well as whether there were any researches on medicines to treat or vaccines to prevent the disease. The Deputy Minister said Tanzania was among countries that were hardly hit by the coronavirus disease outbreak.
As of October 25, this year, Dr Mollel said, Tanzania had recorded a total of 26,164 Covid-19 cases, out of which 725 died and 25,330 recovered.
Moreover, Dr Mollel said the health sector recently received Covid-19 relief package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where the health sector got a share of 466.78bn/-.
These funds have been spent to install equipment at 115 Emergency Medical Department (EMD), construction of 67 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) wards and purchase of 253 ambulances.
The relief also supported to buy eight blood transfusion service vehicles, installation of oxygen production plants and purchase of 2,700 hospital beds in 225 health centres, 95-X ray machines, 29 CT Scan, four MRI machines, and conducting of six researches on the coronavirus mutation.
Regarding high prices of Covid-19 test, the Deputy Minister said the actual cost was 135 US dollars, though the applicant pays 50-US dollars and the government contributes the remaining 85-US dollars. Dr Mollel said a number of researches have been conducted worldwide; saying to date there was no cure but treatment of symptoms that arise from Covid-19 patient.
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