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John Magufuli (at an election rally in August 2020): There is much speculation about his health
Photo: ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP
What a bitter irony: of all things, Tanzania's President John Magufuli is said to be sick with Covid-19.
Magufuli, the corona downplayer of the continent.
And until recently, according to several media reports, he was also treated in a hospital in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
In the past few months, Magufuli did not miss an opportunity to condemn the neighboring country for the comparatively strict Corona measures.
Meanwhile, Magufuli in India will continue to be supplied, reports the Reuters news agency, citing an opposition politician.
The president is in a coma, claims the well-known opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
There is no evidence or even an official confirmation, the Tanzanian government has so far been persistently silent about the whereabouts of the president.
Magufuli has not been seen in public for almost two weeks, and there has been intense speculation about his health since then.
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Medical staff in a hospital in Nairobi
Photo: Ben Curtis / AP
The president claimed last year that the coronavirus could not penetrate the body as long as you pray hard enough and eat well.
In May, Tanzania stopped publishing the number of new infections and unceremoniously declared the country Covid-free.
Magufuli warned his population about the vaccinations from the west, instead called again to pray and inhale medicinal herbs.
After all: He recently indicated that Corona was circulating again and urged his compatriots to wear masks.
Now the virus has apparently caught him himself.
Many observers assume that the situation in Tanzania has been out of control for a long time.
While tourists on the holiday island of Zanzibar danced through the night without masks, videos of secret funerals under cover of darkness were circulating on social media.
The Catholic Church of Tanzania reported that the number of funeral masses had risen sharply.
Several high-ranking officials suddenly passed away without explanation.
So also the Vice President of Zanzibar, who was the only one to make his corona infection public.
In the past few weeks, East Africa has also become a longing destination for many Covid refugees from Europe, as life here still seems comparatively free.
In Tanzania's neighboring country Kenya, too, the previously strict measures are being applied more and more laxly: In many restaurants, guests sit close together, and at night party-goers can be locked up in clubs in the capital Nairobi to dance through the curfew.
All of this now seems to be taking bitter revenge: "We are in the middle of the third wave," the Kenyan health minister Mutahi Kagwe admitted in a press conference on Wednesday.
The first wave hit the country in summer 2020, the second towards the end of the year, so now the third is coming.
And experts fear that it could be the worst yet.
"I suspect that we are mainly dealing with the South African mutant, because the number of infections is increasing very quickly," says Mbira Gikonyo, chairman of the Covid task force at a large hospital in Nairobi.
Gikonyo's hospital had to turn away patients in the past few days because the emergency room had been overrun.
According to several doctors, increasingly severe disease courses can be observed.
The Ministry of Health has now also had to admit that all intensive care beds in Nairobi are occupied.
Almost 90 Covid patients are currently being treated in the intensive care unit in Kenya, and another 28 must be ventilated.
"We doctors and nurses have reached our limits."
Medical director of a large hospital in Nairobi
DER SPIEGEL spoke to several doctors and officials, most of whom want to remain anonymous.
But the statements are congruent: there has been a significant increase in hospital admissions, some patients have to be sent away, and new capacities have to be created quickly.
“We doctors and nurses have reached our limits.
We had hoped that things would slowly return to normal.
But now we're back to where we started, «reports one
medical director who wants to remain anonymous.
In the meantime, there is growing concern about another problem, especially in the underfunded public hospitals: »I'm afraid that we might soon run out of protective equipment.
So far we have been dependent on donations from the richer countries, but they have their own problems right now, ”says the doctor.
Almost a week ago, the first vaccine delivery from the Covax program for poorer countries arrived in Kenya, at least one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
This is to first vaccinate employees in the health service and security personnel.
Large parts of the population will have to wait months for the hoped-for injection.
WHO "in great concern"
The World Health Organization (WHO) is also warning of a further increase in the number of infections in Kenya.
“I'm very concerned about this, especially because of the mutations.
We saw what happened in South Africa, «says the WHO country director for Kenya, Rudi Eggers.
There, the new, more contagious virus variant has caused a sharp increase in the number of infections.
There are no reliable figures on the distribution of the South African mutant in Kenya.
Government laboratories test for their occurrence, but according to experts, the results have not yet been sufficiently published.
The Kenyan Ministry of Health has not yet responded to an interview request or written questions from SPIEGEL.
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Corona outbreaks have also occurred in numerous schools in Kenya
Photo: Dennis Sigwe / SOPA / LightRocket / Getty Images
Experts do not currently assume that there will be scenes like the Italian Bergamo in spring 2020.
At that time, doctors and nurses in individual hospitals had to decide who would get treatment and who would not.
The previous corona waves in Kenya subsided after a few weeks.
"The South African mutant can endanger that," fears health expert Gikonyo.
Several schools are currently also affected by corona outbreaks.
In some cases, according to media reports, boarding schools were completely closed and the students returned to their home regions.
The educational institutions did not reopen their doors until the beginning of January after almost nine months without face-to-face teaching.
And there are other potential super-spreader events coming into focus: election campaign events.
In Kenya, a constitutional amendment is due to be voted on soon, so numerous politicians are pulling through the country to catch votes.
The images are the same at these events: crowds of people crowded together without masks.
Even the politicians, who otherwise appeal to the observance of the protective measures, appear without mouth and nose protection.
For some governors it is enough, they are calling for a one-month ban on campaigning.
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Disinfection sluice in Nairobi: In April 2020, strict measures were still in force, today there is hardly anything left
Photo: Dennis Sigwe / SOPA / LightRocket / Getty Images
On Friday, the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta wants to announce how things should go in the country.
So far, observers assumed that measures such as the night curfew could be lifted.
But it doesn't look like that anymore, the doctors are rather hoping for a tightening of the applicable rules.
"We must not slacken in the fight against the virus," said the Minister of Health on Wednesday.
In neighboring Tanzania, not even new infections are recorded, and the government is also silent about the state of health of the president.
It doesn't look like the alleged Covid infection Magufulis will trigger a rethink.
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