Hallelujah, Good News for Tanzania and NZ

On Sunday, Tanzanian president John Magufuli (right) declared the East African country "coronavirus-free". 

He attributed the claimed success over the worldwide pandemic to prayers and fasting. And he expressed gratitude that his country puts God first and that's why God loves Tanzania. 

On April 29, the last day official info was released, there were 509 cases, with 21 deaths in Tanzania, according to BBC News on Monday. But Magufuli maintained that his health minister had informed him on Friday only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam.

It appears the government has stopped publishing data on the number of coronavirus cases in the country. I guess, for better or for worse, that puts the lid on the Covid-19 situation because now, nobody's any wiser.

And NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) confirmed Monday that her country is similarly free of Covid-19. She even confessed to have done a little dance when she was informed of the good news.

Its final known patient had recovered on that day itself. And if counting yesterday, it has been 18 days since the last new coronavirus case was reported. At least, here, the numbers made sense.

Therefore, New Zealand has lifted almost all of its coronavirus restrictions. Social distancing is no longer required and there are no limits on public gatherings – although borders remain closed to foreigners. 

Anyway, things don’t look so good elsewhere. 

Brazil on Monday and Belarus on Tuesday surpassed 700,000 and 50,000 cases respectively.

In the meantime, South Africa tallied 50,000 cases and a thousand deaths two days ago.

Also, on Monday, Pakistan itself had doubled those South African numbers for both infections and deaths.

I almost neglected to mention that, yesterday, Brazil restored its website that lists the full data on Covid-19 in the country. It is said that the Supreme Court judge had on the same day, ordered the government to release the figures amid accusations of censorship. 

President Jair Bolsonaro (left) tried to explan it away by saying the change in policy was a result of actions being taken to improve Covid-19 reporting. 

Of course, he would say that.