Magufuli was undergoing treatment at a Tanzanian hospital on Wednesday evening, Samiya Suluhu Hassan said.
However, opposition leaders have insisted that Magwifli died in Covid-19 at least a week ago.
In an interview with a Kenyan broadcaster on Thursday, Tundu Lisu of the Chadema opposition party said Magwifli died of covid in early March.
He added, “I received news of President Magufuli’s passing without any surprise.”
“I was expecting all this, from the first day I tweeted on March 7 … when I asked the question ‘Where is President Magufuli and how is he doing?’ I had information from many reliable sources in the government that President Kovid has been seriously ill since 19 and his condition was really very bad, “Lisu said from his base in Belgium. CNN has contacted Lisu for further comment.
CNN could not independently verify their claims. Tanzanian authorities also did not respond to a call to comment on Lisu’s claim.
Maria Sarungi Tsai, activist and founder of the #ChangeTanzania movement, a civil society group that promotes free speech, says the mystery and mystery about the enduring legacy of Mrigufili.
Tsai said he had a lot to say about the circumstances of his death and the “secrecy and intimidation” that citizens have to face in order to estimate or discuss “how he assumed the presidency.”
“Even in his death, people are still panicking and talking in enthusiastic tones,” Tsai said.
Magufuli was the fifth president of Tanzania and part of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which ruled the country since independence in 1961.
The last reports of 909 and 21 deaths were in April last year.
After suspending tracking of covid cases across the country – Mangufuli frustrated global health leaders – blaming the country’s infection on a defective kit kit.
Magufuli’s death has raised many questions about how the country’s epidemics move forward with a vast data vacuum.
Magufuli did not bid for the covid vaccine as he inquired about its safety and encouraged the use of prayers, herbal treatments and steam inhalation to fight the disease.
Tsai says the lack of information makes it difficult for health care workers and citizens to know what the real situation is. Last year his organization conducted an informal survey to get a “snapshot” of the cove situation in the country.
“We are seeing more observations, death announcements and more people leaving us. There are older people and people in their sixties. Parents tell us that children are being hospitalized with difficulty breathing,” he said. . ”
However, the changes are far from imminent, Tsai added. “Nothing will happen immediately. We will have to wait and see what Samiya (Hassan) can do.”
On Friday, Hassan was sworn in as the country’s first female president.
Now the new leader needs to select a vice-presidential candidate and form a cabinet, Tsai said.
“We are very concerned. It needs to work now. The ceremony and burial and funeral ceremony will be covid super spreader events,” Tsai added.
Fight Kovid with prayer
Magufuli was devoutly religious and denied a harsh Covid-19, which repeatedly denied the severity of Covid-19 in Tanzania, while declaring the country virus-free last June after three June prayers.
“Let us pray and fast for three days, I am sure we will win … For Muslims today, which has already begun, tomorrow for the seventh day Adventists who pray for Christians on Saturday and Sunday,” Magufuli said. Said February 19.
“God has never left this nation. We won last year and graduated in a middle-income position between coronaviruses,” he added.
Deus Valentine Rviyamamu, head of strategic litigation at the Center for Pro-Democratic Movement in Tanzania, told CNN that Magufuli failed to lead in controlling his epidemic.
“President Magufuli hid behind religious fanaticism and succeeded in denying the whole nation. His only recorded public address on Kovid, half of which is made up of Bible verses,” Rweimamu said.
However, religious leaders were among his staunchest critics.
Father Charles Kitima, secretary of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, a group of Catholic islands, told CNN on Thursday that the Magufuli regime had not taken immediate action to handle the coronavirus.
Kigima, who has been a vocal critic of Tanzania’s Kovid response under Magufulli, said some members of Tanzania’s Catholic Church have died from Kovid-related complications.
“Some church members had breathing difficulties and died from them,” he told CNN.
“From December 2020 to February 2021, we lost 25 priests and 60 nuns … some of whom died of respiratory distress.”
He added that the rate of infection in the country could not be ascertained due to lack of testing.
Kitima erred in the cowardly response of Magufuli, which relies heavily on religion while ignoring scientific recommendations.
“You can’t separate prayer from science. There is religion to support doctors and researchers. Science and faith must work together,” Kitima told CNN.
Rwiemamu told CNN that many Tanzanians believed in Magufuli – albeit unconventional – methods.
“If the president were to appear in public wearing a Magufuli mask, wear Tanzania’s most bizarre dog. This is because … the people of Tanzania believe in their president more than their parents.”
Musa Khamis, a project officer at Good Neighbors, a non-profit humanitarian organization in Tanzania, told CNN: “
The 26-year-old Tanzanian resident of the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar said Kovid-19 began to exist with many Tanzanians after Zanzibar’s vice president, Saif Sharif Hamad, died after contracting the virus.
Hamad was open about his illness, which he revealed three weeks before his death.
“People now wear masks and wash their hands frequently. I think this is inspired by the recent loss of our vice president.”
The end of the Magufuli era is expected to come in a new national perspective on Covid-19.
However, it remains to be seen whether she will remain as professional as ever for Tanzania’s new leader or whether she will change the disease and make room for an epidemic for science.
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