President Pombe Magufuli says Tanzanian kits are faulty and fake as Pawpaw, Goat test positive

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli. FILE | Reuters

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli says some testing kits donated to Africa are faulty and fake.


He says animal, bird and fruit samples secretly sent to the National lab returned positive for the coronavirus - including a bird, a goat and pawpaw.

The president said on Sunday that he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits, and they had randomly obtained several non-human samples — 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,” President Magufuli said.


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.


Magufuli, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said the kits had “technical errors”.

It is a game of control through disease and fear-mongering. The magnitude of fear built behind the flu kills more people. The panic and stress will kill people.

'NAFIKIRIA SIKU ZA MBELENI KURUHUSU LIGI IENDELEE'

“Mtu anazungumza funga Dar es Salaam, funga Tanga, SIFUNGI! Ni lazima Watanzania tuendelee kuishi, na kiukweli hata siku za mbeleni nafikiria hata kuruhusu ligi iendelee,” Rais John Magufuli#AzamTVUpdates #AzamTVUpdates pic.twitter.com/uFchbLmwdS

— Azam TV (@azamtvtz) May 3, 2020