Tanzania Health Declaration Form: Mandatory for All Travellers from 17 October 2026

Zatra's news brief for employers, investors, tour operators and transporters.

What changed on 17 October 2026

The Mainland Ministry of Health issued Travel Advisory No. 18 of 17 October 2026 on the threat of an Ebola outbreak, with immediate effect. Paragraph 1 requires all travellers to fill in the online Traveller's Health Surveillance Form on AfyaMsafiri, before departure or on arrival. The traveller keeps the confirmation QR code or reference number for port health officers.

The advisory cites the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a recent case in Kenya of a patient who had travelled from the DRC. It is signed by Dr Grace E. Magembe, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health.

The earlier rule was narrower. Travel Advisory No. 17, headed 18 May 2026 and effective from 19 May 2026, applied the form only to travellers arriving from or through the DRC or Uganda. Advisory No. 18 does not say in terms that it revokes No. 17. It describes an expanded requirement, so we read it as widening the form to every arrival.

Who is affected

• Every arriving traveller at Mainland airports, ports and land crossings, of any nationality and from any departure point.
• Employers bringing in foreign staff, auditors, engineers or directors, who add one more item to each trip file.
• Investors on site visits, whose plans already carry a visa and inbound travel insurance.
• Tour operators and hotels, whose guests can be held at port health without the QR code.
• Cross-border drivers and transport companies at Namanga, Holili, Tunduma and other land posts.
• Zanzibar businesses, which work under a separate advisory and portal.

What does the Traveller's Health Surveillance Form ask for?

The AfyaMsafiri home page asks for a passport or other identity number to start. It states that children travelling with a parent or guardian need their own form. VisasNews tested the form and reported its fields on 19 October 2026:

• Personal details: name, sex, date of birth and nationality.
• Travel details: flight, vessel or vehicle number, seat, purpose and length of stay, local address, phone, email and departure country.
• Health questions: countries visited in the last 21 days, symptoms such as fever or vomiting, contact with sick people and attendance at funerals.

The output is a confirmation with a QR code. The advisory asks travellers to fill the form "truthfully". A business should treat the answers as the traveller's own statement, not something an assistant guesses.

When must the form be completed?

The advisory gives two windows: before departure to Tanzania, or on arrival. The AfyaMsafiri home page, in Kiswahili, asks travellers to file within 24 hours before travel or on arrival. That page text still speaks of travellers from or through Ebola-affected countries, so it had not caught up with Advisory No. 18 when we read it on 20 October 2026.

Filing on arrival is allowed, but it moves the work into the arrivals hall. For a business traveller, the sound rule is to file within the 24 hours before departure and save the QR code. Each trip should carry a fresh form, because the questions cover the last 21 days.

What is the legal basis for the advisory?

Advisory No. 18 names two sources: the International Health Regulations (2005) as amended in 2024, and the Public Health Act of 2009. WHO reports that the amended Regulations entered into force on 19 September 2025.

We read the Public Health Act, 2009 (Act No. 1 of 2009) on TanzLII. Section 4(2) applies the International Health Regulations alongside the Act. Section 35 gives the Port Health Officer powers over arrivals from infected countries, including examination, isolation and surveillance. Section 44 makes obstructing an officer or giving false information an offence, with a fine of up to TZS 10,000,000.

The advisory itself prints no penalty for failing to file and cites no Government Notice. We treat the penalty for a missing form as unknown. Any prosecution belongs with an advocate.

WHO declared the Bundibugyo virus epidemic in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on 17 May 2026. Its temporary recommendations of 24 August 2026 advise against border closures and flight suspensions. Tanzania's advisory stays inside that frame: it screens and monitors, and it does not close borders.

Who faces 21-day monitoring?

Paragraph 4 of the advisory activates follow-up for high-risk travellers for 21 days, through daily automated messages or other means. It runs under the National Entry and Exit Screening Standard Operating Procedures. Travellers must respond throughout the period, even after leaving the country.

The advisory does not define "high-risk", and the SOPs are not published with it. A reasonable reading is that the form's answers on travel and exposure drive the classification, with screening at the port. This is not a quarantine order. A person with suspected signs of Ebola is handled separately under paragraph 2.

For employers, the point is the phone. A flagged traveller must answer messages for three weeks, possibly from home after the trip. Use a number the traveller will keep and check.

How does Zanzibar's rule differ?

The Mainland advisory does not reach Zanzibar, which has its own Ministry of Health. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar issued Travel Advisory No. 13 of 9 October 2026, signed by Hon. Nassor Ahmed Mazrui. It rests on the International Health Regulations and the Zanzibar Public and Environmental Health Act, No. 11 of 2012. The Daily News reported an earlier Zanzibar advisory in May 2026 covering the DRC and Uganda.

A traveller flying from Nairobi straight to Zanzibar files the Zanzibar form. A traveller landing in Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro files AfyaMsafiri. Neither advisory says whether a domestic hop to Zanzibar needs a second form, so ask the airline or port health first.

Is the health form part of the visa or the travel insurance?

No. The form is a third, separate entry item, filed with the Ministry of Health rather than Immigration. No fee appears in the advisory or on the portal.

The business visa covers short tasks such as audits, feasibility studies and machine repairs. The Immigration visa guidelines state that applications are processed within ten days. Our guide to the business visa in Tanzania covers the limits.

Inbound travel insurance became an entry condition on 1 October 2026 under GN 256 of 2026. The Ministry of Finance notice on the Tanzanian Embassy website sets USD 44 for up to 92 days. Our post on inbound travel insurance under GN 256 explains the cover. The policy does not replace the health form, and the form does not replace the policy.

What it means for cross-border truckers and transporters

The advisory applies the form to all travellers and screening to ground crossings. Every driver and passenger crossing at Namanga or Holili from Kenya, or at Tunduma from Zambia, needs a QR code. Drivers who cross often should expect to file for each crossing, as the advisory offers no frequent-traveller pass.

Paragraph 5 requires conveyance operators to follow infection prevention and control measures. Paragraph 6 provides that a contaminated conveyance or cargo will be decontaminated at the point of entry. A flagged truck can lose time at the border, with knock-on demurrage and delivery penalties.

Brief drivers, carry sanitiser in each cab and allow buffer time at Kenyan-facing posts. Our guides to transit goods and transport and logistics licensing cover the customs and licence side.

What do tour operators and hotels need to change?

A guest held at port health means a lost transfer and a late check-in. Tour operators should add the AfyaMsafiri link, or the Zanzibar link for Zanzibar-first arrivals, to booking confirmations. The form asks for a local address, so guests need the hotel name before they file. Hotels should brief front desks on the 199 hotline (115 in Zanzibar). Our guides to tour operator licensing and hotel licensing set out the licence layers.

What do employers owe staff who travel?

An employer that sends staff to Tanzania, or brings foreign staff in, keeps its workplace duties. The Occupational Health and Safety Act, Cap. 297, sets the general duties of employers in section 95, and section 101 covers notification of occupational diseases. Our guide to OSHA registration explains which workplaces are covered.

The Workers Compensation Act, Cap. 263 R.E. 2023, gives an employee injured at work a right to compensation under section 19, and Part IV deals with occupational diseases. Whether an infection caught on a business trip qualifies is a fact question for the Workers Compensation Fund. Our guide to WCF employer duties covers registration and contributions.

A Tanzania travel policy should now cover the form, the QR code, a phone kept for 21 days, symptom reporting, and who in the company is told. Permit holders re-entering the Mainland file like any other traveller, as our permit guide notes.

Worked example: a four-person audit team flying in from Nairobi

A Dar es Salaam manufacturer engages a regional audit firm. The firm sends four auditors who are not EAC or SADC residents. They connect through Nairobi and land at Julius Nyerere International Airport on Monday 9 November 2026 for two weeks of fieldwork.

Timing. Immigration processes visas within ten days, so the team applies by Friday 23 October 2026. They buy NIC cover in the week before travel. Each auditor files AfyaMsafiri on Sunday 8 November and saves the QR code.

The Nairobi leg. The team transits Kenya, which reported cases in October. Their answers may lead port health to class one of them as high-risk. That auditor then answers daily messages until 30 November 2026, after fieldwork ends on 20 November. The engagement letter should say who bears the cost if a traveller is held for assessment.

If the team were Nairobi residents. The fee register records that EAC and SADC residents are excluded from the insurance charge, which would save USD 176, subject to the GN 256 text. The health form applies either way.

The USD 1,176 is paid to Immigration and NIC at the official amount. Zatra's professional fee for preparing the trip file is quoted separately.

What to do now

1. Add the form to every trip checklist. Put AfyaMsafiri next to the visa and insurance for all Mainland arrivals.
2. File within 24 hours before departure. Each traveller, including each child, files a form and saves the QR code.
3. Route Zanzibar arrivals correctly. Use the Zanzibar portal for direct arrivals from or via the DRC, Uganda or Kenya.
4. Brief drivers and crews. Every crossing at Namanga, Holili or Tunduma needs a form and hand hygiene.
5. Update guest communications. Add the link, the local address and the hotline to pre-arrival emails.
6. Plan for monitoring. Travellers keep the phone on the form active for 21 days if flagged.
7. Review the travel policy. Record symptom reporting, OSHA notification and WCF steps.
8. Escalate disputes. Send any detention, seizure, prosecution or refusal of entry to an advocate before responding.

Key dates

Kenya's count is moving. Al Jazeera reported the first case on 6 October, the Associated Press a third on 16 October, and Reuters the eighth on 18 October 2026. Both Tanzanian advisories will be reviewed as the situation changes.

How Zatra helps

Zatra's permit team prepares entry files for investors, directors and visiting teams. We sequence the business visa, the investor invitation letter, inbound insurance and the health form. Our HR consulting team drafts travel policies with OSHA and WCF steps. Prices are on our pricing page.

Costs follow the two-bucket rule. Government fees such as visa fees are paid at the official rate against the authority's GePG control number, and the premium goes to NIC or ZIC. These are separate from Zatra's professional fee and never marked up. The official figures are in our government fees handbook.

Port health, Immigration and the insurers decide at entry. Zatra prepares the traveller's file; it does not decide or guarantee any authority's outcome. Detention, seizure, prosecution, disputes and legal opinions go to an advocate on our team.

Sources and status

Accurate as at 20 October 2026. Both advisories were read in full from the ministries' own PDFs. Fees are from the Zatra fee register at 26 September 2026.

• Travel Advisory No. 18: Ministry of Health, 17 Oct 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Travel Advisory No. 17: Ministry of Health, 18 May 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Zanzibar Travel Advisory No. 13: Ministry of Health Zanzibar, 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Public Health Act, 2009: TanzLII, 2009 text. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• PHEIC determination: WHO, 17 May 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Temporary recommendations: WHO, 24 Aug 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Inbound travel insurance notice: Ministry of Finance via Embassy of Tanzania, 27 Sep 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Health declaration now mandatory for all travelers: VisasNews, 19 Oct 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Kenya confirms eighth Ebola case: Reuters, 18 Oct 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.
• Zatra fee register lines F0288, F0393 and F0394, fees at 26 Sep 2026. Accessed 20 Oct 2026.

Figures to confirm before you act

• Penalty for not filing: none in the advisory; section 44 of the Public Health Act covers false information, and its reach to an online form is untested
• High-risk test: set by screening SOPs not published with the advisory
• 24-hour window: from the portal, not the advisory
• Kenya case count: Reuters, 18 Oct 2026; figures change daily
• EAC and SADC residents carve-out (F0288): check the GN 256 Gazette text
• Visa and insurance amounts (F0393, F0394, F0288): the control number or policy governs on the day of payment

This article is general information based on official sources available at the date of publication. It is not legal, tax or financial advice. Laws and notices change. Verify with the issuing authority or consult Zatra before acting.