Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli has declared his country free of Coronavirus, saying prayers and fasting by Tanzanians is reason for the country to defeat the killer virus.

President John Magufuli attributed the claimed success over the worldwide pandemic to prayers and fasting that the people of Tanzania have offered to God.

“It gives me joy to be the leader of a country that puts God first, God loves Tanzania,”  President Magufuli said, according to Jamvi TV in Tanzania.

“The works of the devil will always be defeated in Tanzania because Tanzanians love God and that is why even the corona has been defeated by God,” Magufuli told a Catholic congregation in the capital Dodoma.

Meanwhile, we have learnt that Coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, according to a Harvard Medical School research.

More than seven million people have now been confirmed to have the coronavirus with at least 406,900 dying from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, ever since the pandemic broke out. The US, the UK and Brazil have recorded the highest death tolls. The US, Brazil and Russia have the most cases.

About 64,000 more people than usual have died in the United Kingdom during this year’s coronavirus pandemic, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said.

Epidemiologists say excess mortality – deaths from all causes that exceed the five-year average for the time of year – is the best way of gauging the number to have died from a disease outbreak because it is internationally comparable.