Rwanda conducted a total of 5,556 on Thursday, July 16, bringing the total of sample tests that have been conducted countrywide to more than 200,000 since the Covid-19 outbreak spread to Rwanda.

The Ministry of Health said on Thursday that Rwanda has so far conducted 200,358 tests.

Testing has been recommended as one of the strong measures to respond to the virus, and Rwanda has been expanding its testing capability, employing several testing initiatives.

That includes decentralizing testing exercises and introducing random Covid-19 testing in Kigali city and its entry points to know the state of this pandemic in the city.

This week, the Government said it established two new Covid-19 testing laboratories in Kigali and Huye District in the Southern Province in bid to further decentralize testing of the novel coronavirus and contain it.

"Laboratory diagnostic capacity is essential to respond effectively to Covid-19,” Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) said.

The Government has been able to establish testing laboratories in Rusizi and Rubavu in the Western Province, this month and last month, increasing the country’s testing capability.

The World Health Organization in March this year called on all countries on Monday to ramp up their testing programs as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We have a simple message to all countries - test, test, test,” WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva then. "All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded.”

Without testing, cases cannot be isolated and the chain of infection will not be broken, he said.