AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli yesterday insisted he will not lock down Dar es Salaam and other regions, insisting it was not the best option to check the spread of the Covid-19 in the country.
Instead, the Head of State assured the public that his government was doing everything in its capacity to contain the novel virus.
He reminded people to adhere to all preventive measures while putting in hard work to build the country’s economy, and expressed hopes that the health experts will be able to fight the scourge.
While many countries have embraced a lockdown response, Tanzania has sought a different approach and President Magufuli insisted the government would stick to more effective local solutions rather than copying and pasting measures from elsewhere.
Since the outbreak of the respiratory disease in mid March, Tanzania has resisted calls for locking down some parts of the country as it is trying to win the fight against the pandemic without resorting to lockdowns or other extremely restrictive measures.
President Magufuli reiterated that locking down Dar es Salaam means closing all social and economic activities in the country.
“We cannot allow that to happen, I will not lock down Dar es Salaam, Tanga or any other regions as some people have been suggesting, that is impossible,” insisted the President.
He added: “There is no need for panicking, production and economic activities must continue.”
Last week, some politicians cried for a lockdown as a way of stopping the spread of the deadly virus.
The main opposition party, Chadema even ordered all of its MPs to immediately stop attending the ongoing parliamentary sessions in Dodoma.
The party also directed all lawmakers under Chadema tickets to go into self quarantine in the capital city for 14 days.
President Magufuli, however, called upon the country’s politicians to stop using coronavirus as a political agenda. He said they should instead join hands in the anti Covid-19 crusade.
President Magufuli said the MPs who will not attend the sessions should not be paid allowances.
Reports show that while many of the world’s poor countries affected by the virus have imposed the same social distancing and lockdown measures as rich ones, the results have not been the same and the unintended consequences are proving to be deadly.
In most high-income countries, stay-at-home orders have been used as a main approach in fighting the scourge. The same approach has been copied by some developing countries, but the impacts so far show that taking a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily fit very well.
Instead of fighting the scourge, majority poor people in the developing countries that have imposed copied measures are starving and fighting for their survival in their locked shacks.
In Kenya, media reports show that people have been beaten by police for defying a stay-at-home order and a 13-year-old boy was shot dead during the police patrol. It is palpable, lockdown order for poor people who live in the slums, earning little for putting ‘ugali’ on the table sounds like a death penalty.
In Nigeria, human rights activists have reported that at least 18 people have been killed by security forces enforcing the lockdown. In India, news of an impending national lockdown sent millions of laborers fleeing for the rural areas where they hoped they could find food during the shutdown. They likely carried the coronavirus with them.
According to media agencies, ‘Vox online edition’ lockdowns in rich countries are rough while in poor ones, they haven’t stopped the virus and can lead to greater suffering.
According to analysts, while the lockdown policies intend to save lives, it is unfortunately they do not work as planned in most of the countries and instead, they are likely to be causing more suffering to wananchi.
In El Salvador, the people swarmed the capital to beg for aid only a week after the authority imposed the lockdown order. Researchers report that there is a big number of deaths from starvation.
In the US the World has witnessed some people taking it to the streets to challenge the lockdown saying staying inside means risking their jobs and wellbeing.
Moreover, many developed countries that imposed total lockdown have already started to ease orders to rescue their collapsing economy.
