The state house in Tanzania has introduced temperature checks and hand sanitization as the country adopts the use of masks as some of the measures to limit the spread of coronavirus.

On Monday, President Samia Suluhu received foreign envoys who were screened and sanitized upon entry.

The envoys were all required to wear face masks and the photos taken at the time also showed the president wearing one.

President Samia was seen wearing a face mask for the first time while in Tanzania on Friday and said it was necessary to protect the elderly people she was meeting.

The move was a few days after her visit to Kenya during which she wore a mask.

She joked that wearing a mask was like a herder muzzling a goat to stop it from eating crops, but that it was necessary.

The previous administration under President John Magufuli, who died on 17 March, scoffed at the global warnings over coronavirus and downplayed its threat.

Tanzania advocated for steam-inhalation and other ways to boost immunity against Covid at the beginning of the pandemic and has not issued statistics of infection rates since May last year.

After Mr Magufuli’s death, President Samia said she had formed a task force to look into the Covid-19 situation.