A mass testing exercise has begun in upcountry districts under lockdown in which over 198,800 people will be tested for Covid-19.

Kigali City and eight districts are currently under a ten-day lockdown, which was imposed last week to contain a record surge in new cases of Covid-19.

Mass testing in the districts followed a similar exercise in Kigali on Saturday and Sunday, where 3,616 new positive cases were recorded out of over 120,000 people who were tested.

Starting on Monday, July 19, residents aged above 18 get a Covid-19 rapid test in each cell of the districts under lockdown, namely: Musanze, Burera, Gicumbi, Rubavu, Rutsiro, Kamonyi, Rwamagana and Nyagatare.

In Musanze District, 152 new cases were recorded Monday out of 1,760 tests. The district will test 25,000 people in three days. Testing continued on Tuesday.

"I was eager to know if I am not infected with the virus; now I am very happy.” Ezekiel Sezikeye, a 71-year-old resident of Busogo Sector in Musanze, said after getting a negative test.

One of the districts with the highest number of cases recorded daily, Musanze currently has 767 patients, with 31 in critical condition, Dr Philbert Muhire, director-general of Ruhengeri Referral Hospital, told The New Times.

"As people continue to protect themselves against the virus, we ask them to come to the designated sites to take the test,” Dr. Muhire said.

At the testing sites, people who test positive for the coronavirus are educated about prevention measures in homes. Their relatives are called promptly and tested.

In the other districts, mass testing began on Tuesday. In the Northern Province, Burera targets 23,090 people while Gicumbi will test over 27,000 during the lockdown.

In the Southern Province, Kamonyi will test 24,000 people.

In the Eastern Province, Nyagatare will take some 32,600. Rwamagana targets 21,504; 4700 were tested on Tuesday, according to district officials.

In the Western Province, Rubavu will take more than 24,000 Covid-19 tests, while Rutsiro targets 21,700.

A surge in new cases started in June. Last week, the Ministry of Health said that the record surge in new cases and deaths had been cause by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which accounted for 60 percent of recorded infection.

According to health officials, the mass testing effort will give the picture of the prevalence of the coronavirus in the capital and eight districts under lockdown. It will also show the effectiveness of the lockdown.

On Monday, Rwanda recorded 913 news cases out of 8,664 tests.