Tanzania president questions coronavirus kits after animal test

President Magufuli says tests were found to be faulty after goat, sheep and pawpaw samples test positive for COVID-19.

Tanzania's President John Magufuli has dismissed imported coronavirus testing kits as faulty, saying they returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.

Magufuli made the remarks during an event in Chato in northwestern Tanzania on Sunday. He said there were "technical errors" with the tests.

The president, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits.

They had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages.

These samples were then submitted to Tanzania's laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the lab technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.

Samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive for COVID-19, the president said, adding this meant it was likely that some people were being tested positive when, in fact, they were not infected by the coronavirus.

"There is something happening. I said before we should not accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation," Magufuli said, adding the kits should be investigated.

On Saturday, Magufuli announced that he had placed an order for a herbal treatment for the coronavirus touted by the president of Madagascar.

"I have already written to Madagascar's president and we will soon dispatch a plane to fetch the medicine so that Tanzania can also benefit from it," he said.

The herbal remedy, called "Covid Organics" and prepared by the Malagasy Institute for Applied Research, is made out of Artemisia, a plant cultivated on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.

Poloyanabo1:
Jeez!
this covid19 shit keeps getting more scarier everyday.
but whatsup with east africa and weird news?

Gjrich:


This is an indication that most test kits supplied to Africa are not working properly

Gjrich:
Experts have cause to worry as a goat and pawpaw are said to have tested positive for coronavirus in Tanzania.

The country’s President, John Magufuli on Sunday, made this known on Sunday, wondering whether the goat and pawpaw have to be quarantines.

“We extracted a sample from a goat which turned positive. This tells you that something is not adding up,” he stated.

“Are we now supposed to quarantine goats and fruits?” President Magufuli questioned.

He has, consequently, ordered a probe of the country’s coronavirus testing kits after samples taken from a goat and pawpaw tested positive.

The leader quoted as speaking in Chato in the northwest of Tanzania, Magufuli said the COVID-19 testing kits which had been imported from abroad had “technical errors”.

According to him, he has instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits, who then randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat, and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages.

The samples were then submitted to Tanzania’s laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the lab technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins, he noted.

He disclosed that samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive for COVID-19, adding it was likely that some people were being tested positive when in fact they were not infected by the Coronavirus.

Poloyanabo1:
Jeez!
this covid19 shit keeps getting more scarier everyday.
but whatsup with east africa and weird news?

dayorich:
So, no source!
Are you a fool?

ignis:

Do we have end of this in sight ?

Poloyanabo1:

I will say no!
No end in sight!
only a cure can end it or a vaccine, this shit might last till december.
But i pray am wrong.