Morogoro, 21 - 24 February 2022: In line with recommendations of the International Health Regulations (IHR), the Ministry of Health in the United Republic of Tanzania, with technical support from WHO and other development partners including UNICEF, USAID, British Council, JSI and CDC, has concluded the second intra action review of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Tanzania introduced COVID-19 vaccines relatively late, it is among the first few countries in the African region to have conducted a second review of its COVID-19 response. The first review of the response took place in October 2021. Since then, Tanzania had intensified COVID-19 immunization activities, including expansion of outreach sessions and updated the existing National Vaccine Deployment Plan (NVDP).

In his remarks, the IVD Manager, Dr. Florian Tinuga stated that the functional review was critical to assess the operational capacity of the system for a robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The main purpose of the second IAR was to appraise the functional capacity of the COVID-19 response system at the national and sub-national levels following the introduction of additional vaccines (Sinopharm, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines),” said Tinuga.  He added that the focus is to assist the country to identify best practices and challenges to further improve the current COVID-19 vaccination roll-out.”

The manager stated that Tanzania has vaccinated 4.38% of her total population 22^nd February 2022. 

The 3-day exercise at Morogoro closely reviewed critical areas of the COVID-19 response including country-level coordination, planning and monitoring; COVID-19 vaccination; risk communication, community engagement, and infodemic management; COVID-19 surveillance, case investigation and contact tracing; points of entry; case management and knowledge sharing about innovation and the latest research. Other aspects reviewed are operational support and logistics in the management of supply chains and workforce resilience; and strengthening essential health services during the COVID-19 outbreak.  

WHO’s focal person for Immunization and Vaccine Development (IVD), Dr. William Mwengee reiterated WHO’s commitment to providing needed technical leadership of the Tanzanian response. “Although Tanzania had initial setbacks at the beginning of her response to COVID-19 pandemic, WHO will continue to provide needed technical leadership of the overall response to ensure that Tanzanians in Mainland and Zanzibar are largely protected from COVID-19 infections,” says Mwengee.   

Best practices identified at the review

Best practices identified at the review include strong multi-sectoral collaboration between political leaders and public health experts for collective planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring and supervision of intensified outreach services in Ruvuma region. Intensification of out-reach immunization services characterized by the use of contextualised local slogans “Timua vumbi” in Ruvuma region enabled Ruvuma to reach the highest COVID-19 coverage of 12%, against the national average of 4%. In Dar es Salaam, the integration of COVID-19 vaccination in routine HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Clinics with the support of Management and Development for Health (MDH) increased the vaccination rate of People Living with HIV/AIDS from 2,000 to 5,000 per day. All over the country vaccination rates usually drops during weekends but the engagement of medical and nursing students from Dodoma University increased vaccination rate from 200 to 500 persons per day in Chamwino district, Dodoma region. The engagement of vaccine champions in the communities have also helped to address misconceptions, rumours and misinformation.

Key Challenges affecting COVID-19 response in Tanzania

COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Tanzania remains significantly lower than the global and regional targets established for countries. Key challenges responsible for low coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in Tanzania include delayed introduction of COVID-19 vaccine into the country, vaccination only commenced in July 2021; limited vaccine supply received in the country between Q3-Q4 2021, and low demand due to misinformation about COVID-19 disease, prevention measures and COVID-19 vaccine. Qualitative findings also indicate that most Tanzanians are unwilling to receive external COVID-19 vaccine due to uncertainties towards its effectiveness to eradicate the disease as associated deaths still occur in countries where people are vaccinated.

Going forward, the review highlighted the need for advocacy with high-level political, community and religious leaders   and increased access to COVID vaccination. In addition, a mass campaign to scale up vaccination activities with adequate resource mobilization is imperative in the coming months.