President Samia Suluhu has been given a Covid vaccine at the start of Tanzania's vaccination rollout. The move marks a break with her predecessor, John Magufuli, a prominent coronavirus sceptic, who died in March from heart complications. The former president did not believe in the value of vaccines, and Tanzania did not sign up to vaccination campaigns.
At the ceremony to start the vaccination rollout, President Samia urged all Tanzanians to get vaccinated, saying the country was "not an island." In June, she let international organisations and foreign embassies import vaccines for their employees.
Tanzania also applied to join the global Covax vaccine distribution scheme, and received a batch of one million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine donated by the US government on 24 July. The semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar started their own vaccination campaign about two weeks ago, using China's Sinovac vaccine. The African Union also says Tanzania is participating in its vaccine-purchasing programme.
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