(3 minutes read)
- Tanzania has now joined the bandwagon of creating own facilities for vaccine manufacturing
- This is a part of the East African country’s strategy to tackle Covid and other diseases in the country
- The country was also aiming to export vaccines to east and southern African countries
Tanzania has now joined the bandwagon of creating own facilities for vaccine manufacturing. This is a part of the East African country’s strategy to tackle Covid and other diseases in the country. Announcing the determination of the country to have its own vaccine manufacturing unit, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the country was also aiming to export vaccines to east and southern African countries.
President also said that her country would spend nearly US$100million (£70m) by 2030 to import vaccine, extrapolating the demand at the present level. That has prompted her to take the decision to set up its own local capacity. She revealed this information at her meeting with the European Union Council President Charles Michel in Brussels, and added that she was submitting a proposal for support to make the project a success.
It may be recalled that her predecessor John Magufuli, was a prominent coronavirus skeptic, who died last year presumably from heart complications. He maintained that the only medicine for the viral infection was prayer and advocated all religious segments in the country to pray for getting succour from the curse of God. Samia Suluhu Hassan has changed Tanzania’s pandemic management by joining COVAX, in order to receive free doses, an arrangement worked out by WHO in consultation with other UN organizations.
