Tanzania says embassies, international agencies can import COVID-19 vaccines

FILE PHOTO: Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, inspects a guard of honour by the Kenya Defence Forces at State House in Nairobi
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
·1 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania said on Friday embassies and international agencies can import COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate their citizens and staff against the coronavirus.

The move is part of a more proactive approach to tackling the disease following the death in March of President John Magufuli, who underplayed the pandemic and expressed scepticism of vaccines.[nL1N2LZ0KF}

The announcement came after experts presented President Samia Suluhu Hassan with a plan, including the issuing of vaccines in the country.

"President Samia (Suluhu Hassan) said embassies and international organisations have been permitted to import COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate their own nationals and staff to meet their countries and institution's requirements and remove barriers on their daily work," the presidency said in a statement.

The health ministry will coordinate the importation of vaccines for them, it added.

Tanzania is one of a handful of African countries that have not yet received vaccines, according to the World Health Organization.

The government reported 509 infections and 21 coronavirus-related deaths before it stopped reporting cases in May 2020. The experts have advised the government to resume publishing accurate statistics.

(Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Recommended Stories

  • S.Korea says 81% of elderly signed up for COVID-19 vaccination

    South Korea said on Friday it expects to meet its vaccination target for the first half of the year ahead of schedule as 81% of people aged between 60 and 74 years old have signed up for COVID-19 inoculations. The government will begin offering inoculation for this age group in June, as it widens its vaccination programme launched in late February after it prioritised frontline workers, medical staff and nursing home patients. South Korea's vaccine rollout has been hampered by global shortages and shipment delays, while the government has also sought to boost immunisation by easing restrictions for people who have been vaccinated.

  • Nigeria says it suspends Twitter days after president's post removed

    Nigeria said on Friday it had indefinitely suspended Twitter's activities, two days after the social media giant removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the government had acted because of "the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence". Twitter is investigating its "deeply concerning" suspension of operations by the Nigerian government, and "will provide updates when we know more," the company said in a statement.

  • ‘Rebel Hearts’ Trailer: Sundance Documentary Pits Defiant Nuns Against the Vatican

    Exclusive: Strand Releasing will release Pedro Kos' non-fiction feature in theaters next month, followed by a Discovery+ streaming release.

  • Taiwan Chip Packager to Stop Production for 48 Hours Due to Pandemic Resurgence: Reuters

    Taiwanese chip packager, King Yuan Electronics, will stop production for two days from today after several employees contracted COVID-19 amid rising cases in the global chip hub, Reuters reports. The rising cases have triggered concerns about the worsening of the semiconductor chip crisis that has hampered global industry ranging from auto to electronics. Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (OTC: SSNLF) feature amongst King Yuan’s essential customers. The halt is estimated t

  • Lost limbs, rising anger as town is caught up in Tigray war

    Shops remained shuttered, some government workers hadn’t been paid and the town’s main hospital was utterly laid to waste. Hawzen, a rural town in the ethnic Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, is a microcosm of the challenge facing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — and a warning that the war here is unlikely to end anytime soon. When The Associated Press arrived in May, Tigrayan fighters had recently retaken Hawzen from Ethiopian government troops, laying claim once again to land that has switched control multiple times since the war began in November.

  • China urges closer Afghanistan ties as US withdrawal looms

    China is urging closer security and economic cooperation with Afghanistan in an apparent effort to bolster its influence in the region as the U.S. and its allies prepare to withdraw their forces from the country. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that foreign ministers from China, Afghanistan and Pakistan met via video conference on Thursday and agreed that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be carried out in a responsible and orderly manner to prevent the deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan and the return of "terrorist forces.” It quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as saying the three countries “needed to to strengthen communication and cooperation” for the sake of Afghanistan’s interests and those of neighboring countries.

  • UPDATE 1-Mexico says U.S. to send it 1 mln J&J COVID-19 vaccines

    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday that following a conversation with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the United States had agreed to send Mexico one million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine against COVID-19. "I expressed our gratitude in the name of the Mexican people," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. U.S. President Joe Biden had laid out earlier how the United States would share some 25 million of a planned 80 million vaccine doses with the rest of the world.

  • Novavax Stock Spikes as U.S. Releases Hold on Raw Materials for COVID-19 Vaccines

    Novavax stock has jumped 30% this week in anticipation of dramatically increasing production of its COVID-19 vaccine soon.

  • Starvation 'used as weapon of war' in Ethiopia

    Ethiopia is on course to suffer a famine last seen in the 1980s, when mass starvation killed about a million people, the United Nation’s humanitarian chief has warned. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mark Lowcock implored warring parties in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray Region to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face one of the greatest tragedies of this century. “People need to wake up," he said. "There is now a risk of a loss of life running into the hundreds of thousands or

  • Trudeau wants Vatican apology for church-run school abuses

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he is “deeply disappointed” the Roman Catholic Church has not offered a formal apology and made amends for its role in Canada’s former system of church-run Indigenous boarding schools after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country’s largest such institution. Trudeau called on the church to “step up” and take responsibility after years of silence. “As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the position that the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years,” Trudeau said.

  • Uganda: Two summoned after reporting on BBC investigation

    The editor and owner of a newspaper in Uganda have been summoned after reporting on police killings.

  • 'Mission: Impossible 7' set shut down again due to COVID

    Filming in Britain on the latest "Mission: Impossible" movie has been shut down for two weeks after some people working on the movie tested positive for the coronavirus, Paramount Pictures said on Thursday. The movie studio did not say who or how many people had tested positive but Britain's Sun newspaper said star Tom Cruise was not among them. The Sun newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said 14 members of the production tested positive after shooting a nightclub scene, and that Cruise, like other people working on the set, would have to self-isolate for 14 days.

  • Nigeria suspends Twitter operations, says platform 'undermines its corporate existence'

    Through its Ministry of Information and Culture today, the Nigerian government announced its decision to suspend the operations of social media platform Twitter in the country. The statement, made by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and signed off by his media aide Segun Adeyemi, could see telecoms in the country prevent Nigerians from using Twitter. The Federal Government has suspended indefinitely the operations of the microblogging and social networking service Twitter in Nigeria.

  • What the heck is going on in Israel? The Netanyahu show looks kind of like the Trump show.

    Imagine President Biden's 51-50 Senate majority, temporary unity of liberal Democrats and conservative Never Trumpers – but in the Middle East.

  • Surprising No One Black, Resurfaced Documents Confirm 'Coloured Immigrants or Foreigners' Were Once Banned From Clerical Roles in Buckingham Palace

    Remember that time that “palace aides” went on the offensive against Meghan Markle, alleging that the Duchess of Sussex had bullied them just ahead of her and Prince Harry’s televised sit-down with Oprah?

  • Glazer offers key shares in 1st meeting with Man United fans

    Manchester United co-owner Joel Glazer offered Friday to make shares available to supporters with the same voting rights as shares held by his family, marking an attempt to heal the rift that deepened after failing to engage with fans before being part of the ill-fated attempt to launch a European Super League. Talks on Friday marked the first engagement by the Glazers with fans since buying United in a leveraged takeover in 2005 that loaded debt onto the club and sparked years of protests. The dissent reached unprecedented levels last month when unrest around and inside Old Trafford led to United's game against Liverpool being postponed, leading to the owning family's pledge to attend a virtual fans' forum.

  • Paxful Launches Tool Allowing Businesses to Receive Payment in Bitcoin

    The tool will convert customers' payments into bitcoin, which is then sent to the merchant's digital wallet.

  • Philly police investigate ATM explosion at Broad Street gas station

    Philadelphia police are investigating another ATM explosion, this time in the city's Logan section.

  • 'It was a war': Ethnic killings cloud Ethiopia's election buildup

    As gunfire crackled outside, Genet Webea huddled with her husband and seven-year-old daughter, praying they would be spared in the latest bout of ethnic strife to rock central Ethiopia.

  • Dikembe Mutombo on the NBA doubling down on Africa: ‘They have the potential to grow anything’

    Dikembe Mutombo put the Democratic Republic of Congo on the basketball map, when he was first drafted by the Denver Nuggets nearly 30 years ago.