Covid-19 Pandemic: An Experience from Tanzania

By Bariki G. Mwasaga, September 2020 Disclaimer: I am a PhD candidate at the University of Perugia, Italy. Prior to starting PhD studies, I was working with the Prime Minister’s Office in Tanzania. I am sharing my insights on how the government of United Republic of Tanzania responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. T he first Covid-19 case in Tanzania was officially announced on 16 March, which called for the two governments – the Government of United Republic of Tanzania (URT) in collaboration with the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar [1] (RGoZ) – to come up with measures to intervene. Health-related issues are not among the Union matters; each government is independently responsible to deal with these under the existing governance structure. However, due to its nature, there was a need for the two governments to collaborate as it was considered a national disaster, which then falls under the jurisdiction of the President of the Union government. Thus, the Government of Tanzania formed a National Task Force, led by the Prime Minister’s Office, to develop a multi-sectoral national Covid-19 response plan to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Upon confirmation of the first, single Covid-19 case, the Government of Tanzania straightaway imposed several preventive and preparedness measures . Disaster committees – like the National Task Force – have structures at national, regional, district and village level in the country, which have been established by the Disaster Management Act of 2015, for the purpose of coordinating disaster management within the area of their jurisdictions. The National Operational Guidelines for Disaster Management has been applied in the past to respond to epidemics including cholera, rift valley fever, bird flu and swine flu. It lays out clearly that epidemics of communicable diseases health-related emergencies and disasters need to be addressed by the Health Emergency and Disaster Preparedness and Response Section in the health minist