President Samia Suluhu seen in Tanzania wearing face mask

President Samia Suluhu on Friday appeared at a meeting in Dar es Salaam wearing a face mask. 

Her aides and many people attending the meeting had masks on.

This is the first time that President Suluhu has been seen at home wearing a mask. 

During the event on Friday, President Suluhu addressed an audience of nearly 900 elders from across the country.

"We apologise, our lifestyle has changed we have come here today in face masks and this is because the elderly are at a higher risk of contracting this disease, so we have to protect them," the Tanzanian leader said.

Recently Ms Suluhu announced that she has formed a committee of experts that will advise her on the status of Covid-19 in the country and the necessary steps to take.

Her decision on Covid-19 was a dramatic about-turn on Dr Magufuli’s rigid stance, who stubbornly refused to acknowledge the disease.

“We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand. I shall form a committee of experts to look at it professionally and then advise the government. It should not be silenced or rejected or accepted without professional research,” President Suluhu told an audience of new senior government officials— including ministers who had taken an oath of office in Dar es Salaam.

Aware that the event was being televised across the region, she acknowledged that the country’s policy had isolated it from the rest of the world.

“We cannot isolate ourselves as if we are an island. That is not to say we can accept everything brought to us, (but) we cannot continue reading about Covid-19 globally, yet (our) policy remains incomprehensible.”

Tanzania’s stance on Covid-19 had baffled the world. While many countries insisted on wearing masks in public spaces, washing hands and keeping distance, Tanzania did not make it compulsory, and sometimes those wearing masks were chided.