Covid-19: Govt lifts movement ban on three upcountry districts
Monday, March 29, 2021

Effective Tuesday, March 30, movements to and from Bugesera, Nyanza, and Gisagara districts will resume after a two-week ban in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The directive is among new Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, March 29.

Travel restrictions were imposed on the three districts after, according to the Ministry of Health, there was more prevalence of Covid-19 noticed in the area compared to other districts in the country.

Meanwhile, as per the new directives, the curfew will still remain from 9 p.m to 4 a.m.

However, movements are prohibited between 7 p.m and 4 a.m in Ruhango, Nyanza, Huye, Gisagara, Nyaruguru, and Nyamagabe districts, Southern Province.

Other changes include reducing the number of passengers in public buses, whereby, effective Tuesday, public buses will not be allowed to exceed 50 per cent capacity. Until Monday, the maximum number of commuters was 75 per cent of the vehicle’s capacity.

Though physical meetings will remain allowed, Covid-19 testing will continue to be required for gatherings that exceed 20 people. Also, participants should not go beyond 30 per cent of the capacity of the venue where they are meeting.

As it has been, arriving and departing passengers at Kigali International Airport must present a negative Covid-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to departure and should comply with health guidelines in place.

"The public is reminded to remain vigilant in complying with preventive measures in order to control a Covid-19 resurgence,” the Office of the Premier said in a statement.

All new measures are expected to be reviewed after two weeks.

Rwanda has so far confirmed 21,419 Covid-19 cases. Of these, 19,785 have already recovered. A total of 301 people have succumbed to the virus.

It is now more than three weeks since the country rolled out the vaccination exercise, and 348,926 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 already.