AfricaPress-Tanzania: KAGERA Regional Commissioner (RC) Brig Gen Marco Gaguti has appealed to residents to participate in preventive measures to check the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19).
“Equally, people living in border villages should report immediately aliens who enter the country through illegal routes for further checkup,” he said.
Speaking to Kakoni and Kyansheshe villagers in Kyerwa District on Wednesday he said the region had a porous border and it was not easy to assign police officers to each area.
Mr Gaguti appealed to people to wash their hands regularly for 20 seconds with soap, sanitise themselves and cover their nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or a flexed elbow when they coughed or sneezed.
People should also avoid close contact (1 metre) with people who are unwell and stay home and self-isolate from others in the household if you feel unwell.
Kagera Region recorded its first suspected coronavirus patient a few weeks ago.
The patient was reported to have entered the country through Kabanga Entry Point in Ngara District from a neighbouring country.
The patient was later confirmed to have contracted the disease and sent to an isolation centre.
The government has ramped up its call for preventive measures such as general hygienic practices, including the use of facemasks, handwashing and use of sanitisers in public places and increased enforcement of social or physical distancing.
Coronavirus disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze.
It also spreads when a person touches a surface or an object that has the virus on it, then touches their eyes, nose or mouth.
Meanwhile, Bishop Benson Bagonza of Karagwe Diocese under the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) has appealed for national prayers involving all religious institutions.
“As the nation intensifies efforts to control coronavirus we should join hands in praying to the Almighty God to save us from Covid-19. We should not relax because the pandemic is a global emergency,” he stressed.
