AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Zanzibar Minister for Health, Mr Hamad Rashid Mohamed has said that the government avoided mass testing to identify positive cases of coronavirus because it could cause panic in the country and unnecessary high expenditure of funds.
“Testing is expensive; it costs between US 120 to 150 dollars per head. We decided not to mass test also because we could not have enough space to put people who test positive. We only concentrate with victims in poor condition,” said Mohamed.
Giving an update about Covid-19 in Zanzibar, the Minister said experts quickly noticed that mass testing could create more problems in a poor country like Zanzibar without enough resources and health facilities specific for Covid-19 patients.
“People who tested positive and not serious were advised to stay home as medical doctors provided them with care while at home. Almost all those who were quarantined in March/April after the outbreak have recovered, and only six out of the 134 died. We thank God,” he said.
During a special interview with Isles national television (ZBC-TV), Mr Mohamed poured praise on President John Magufuli and Dr Ali Mohamed Shein for their exemplary leadership in response to the coronavirus.
Our medical team, he said, worked hard along our leaders’ guidance, and prayers leading to control of the spread coronavirus in the country.
“The country is now getting back slowly to normal life and opening the doors for tourists because we are winning the war against Covid- 19,” he said, emphasizing on maintaining precaution and hygiene, like wearing a mask and social distancing.
The health minister said that measures are still being taken to contain coronavirus, including installation of equipment for testing Covid- 19 at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital before fixing the second and third testing equipment in Binguni (Unguja) and Pemba respectively.
“Soon we will have Diagnostic Virology Laboratory (DVL), to ease identification of common and novel viruses from diagnostic and research samples,” he said.
