Tanzania activists urge government to begin COVID-19 vaccinations

The president of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, has said his government will soon import COVID-19 vaccines.  This puts the region at odds with the national government, which has yet to approve any COVID vaccine. Opposition parties are urging the government to allow vaccinations to begin.

Zanzibar’s President Hussein Mwinyi said Saturday that he will allow COVID-19 vaccines to be administered in the semi-autonomous region.  He said the vaccinations, when they begin, will be both optional and safe.

Mwinyi said there will be nobody who will be forced to get a vaccination they don’t want.  He added we should not accept people’s sayings that if you get vaccinated would die; all over the world, people have been vaccinated.  He said we will bring in the vaccine and those who want it will be vaccinated and those who don’t won't take the shot.

Former Tanzanian president John Magufuli, who died in March, denied the presence of COVID-19 in the country and dismissed the vaccines as unproven and risky.

Source: VOA