Family speaks out after first Covid-19 death

Dar es Salaam. The family of Iddi Hashim Mbita, who died from Covid-19 yesterday, have narrated his final days.

The death of the 49-year-old, who the Health ministry said had other underlying medical conditions, was the first from Covid-19 in Tanzania since the first case was announced a fortnight ago.

A statement issued by Health minister Ummy Mwalimu, did not name the victim.

“I regret to announce the first Covid-19 death in the country,” she stated, adding that the deceased was also suffering from other health complications. Minutes after the announcement, social media went into overdrive, with some posts identifying the deceased as Iddi Mbita. This prompted The Citizen to seek conformation from his family.

His elder brother, Mr Ibrahim Mbita, confirmed Iddi had indeed died from Covid-19 at around 3am at Mloganzila Hospital.

He said his younger brother had been troubled by flu and high blood pressure before his death.

“A week ago he suffered from severe flu, to which he was particularly susceptible,” Ibrahim said.

Iddi first went to a hospital in Masaki, Dar es Salaam, but five days ago his condition worsened, and he sought treatment at a major private hospital in the city, where he underwent a number of medical tests, including one for Covid-19.

The results, which were released on Monday, showed that Iddi had contracted the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

The deceased is survived by a widow and two children, who were expected to be quarantined.

Iddi was the last of six children of the late Hashim Mbita, former executive secretary of the Liberation Committee of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Mbita chaired the committee for 22 years from 1972 to 1994.

Tanzania reported its first Covid-19 case on March 16, a Tanzanian woman who had arrived a few days earlier from Europe. She has since recovered.

The number of cases stood at 19 as of yesterday, and the government has in the last few weeks taken a number of measures to combat the outbreak, including closing schools, colleges and universities for a month,

In Dodoma, Parliament, which has convened for its marathon budget sitting, shortened its daily sessions and limited the number of MPs allowed into the debating chamber.

In another development, the Chinese embassy said opposition politician Zitto Kabwe’s assertion that “secrecy has cost China” in its response to Covid-19 was inaccurate.

“This is not correct and Mr Kabwe took an inappropriate example. As a matter of fact, there is no so-called ‘secrecy’ in China’s response to Covid-19 outbreak,” the embassy said in a statement.

“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has been acting in an open, transparent and responsible manner by publicizing all related epidemic data on daily basis, sharing information including the genome sequence of the virus, protocol of diagnosis and treatment with the WHO and other countries, and actively collaborating with the international experts to conduct site inspection in China,” it added.

Additional reporting by Alawi Masare