COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania  The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Tanzania in March 2020. Tanzanian authorities stopped reporting case numbers in May after President John Magufuli alleged that laboratories were returning false positives. On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. In May 2020, Fatma Karume, a human rights activist, said authorities are discouraging people from going to hospitals to avoid overwhelming them, but they are not giving adequate guidance about the virus. Karume said: “When you are disempowering a whole nation by withholding information and creating doubt on how they should respond to the crisis, the outcome can be disastrous”. On 16 March, the first case in Tanzania was confirmed in Arusha. It was a 46-year-old Tanzanian who had come to Arusha from Belgium. On 17 March, the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa announced a range of measures, including closing schools. On 18 March, two other cases in Tanzania were reported. On 19 March, two new cases were reported, bringing the total to six. Five cases were located in capital city of Dar es Salaam with the other in Zanzibar. On 22 March, it was announced that cases had risen to 12. On 23 March, the Government announced that all incoming travelers from COVID affected countries would be placed in quarantine at their own cost for 14 days. On 25 March, it was announced that Zanzibar recorded its second case. On 26 March, the first COVID recovery was announced, of the first Arusha patient. On 28 March, a third case was recorded in Zanzibar. On 30 March, there were 5 more recorded cases, including two in Zanzibar and three in mainland Tanzania, bringing the cumulative total to 19. On 31 March, the first COVID death was recorded, in Dar es Salaam. On 1 April, one new case and one recovery in Dar es Salaam were announced, bringing the cumulative totals to 20 cases, two recoveries, and one death. On 3 April, a third recovery in Kagera was announced, bringing the active case number to 16.