The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has approved $567m in emergency support for Tanzania to help it finance a COVID-19 vaccination campaign and meet the health and social costs of the pandemic, the IMF said in a statement. The IMF board approved on Tuesday a disbursement of $189m to Tanzania under its Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), as well as $378m under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), the global lender said. The funding announcement follows talks between the IMF and Tanzania, with the government committing to resume publishing data on the spread of COVID-19 in order to determine the outbreak’s severity and an appropriate response. The authorities had stopped releasing the data after former President Magufuli downplayed the disease before his death. While his successor has launched a nationwide vaccination campaign, the release of data is still inconsistent – the government last published COVID-19 statistics in July, when it reported 858 cases and 29 deaths. The economic effects from the virus last year caused about one million people in Tanzania to fall into poverty.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA