The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has banned handshaking in Tanzania League, issued a circular instructing to all football players and officials to avoid the usual shaking of hands before games kick-off.
According to TFF, this is in an effort to avoid the spread of the deadly Coronavirus by advising the players to just wave at each other instead of shaking hands and says it has acted under the guidance of Tanzania Ministry of Health.
There are currently 93,574 confirmed cases and 3,204 deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of March 4, 2020. The 51,059 have been reported to have recovered from the deadly virus worldwide while 6772 are in critical condition.
There have been very few cases in Africa with only three official cases. The low rate continues to puzzle health experts.
"Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for Covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation, told African Union health ministers gathered in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on February 22, 2020.
"Perhaps the virus doesn't spread in the African ecosystem, we don't know," said Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris.
Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the North, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the West and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the South. The country's eastern border lies in the Indian Ocean which has a coastline of 1,424 km.
Tanzania Football Federation has banned handshakes btn players before the start of a match.
— Harun Lugoyah (@Harunlugoya) March 4, 2020
TFF said it was following advice issued by the ministry of health as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus.
😀 A foot greeting is a new style 🙌@MichaelMwebe @NuhuAdams_ pic.twitter.com/oPJyV6KfBM
BOOM: Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has banned shaking hands by players in an effort to curb the spread of Coronavirus! pic.twitter.com/9SZ1z9xnbk
— SportsObama.com (@SportsObama) March 4, 2020
