Government decided to put Musanze District under longer curfew hours than the rest of the country because of a high prevalence of Covid-19 that has been detected within the area, according to Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Minister for Health. A cabinet meeting held on Monday, December 14 resolved that the district be put under “exclusive guidelines” specifically prohibiting human movements between 7 PM to 4 am every day. This is opposed to the new guidelines put in place for the other parts of the country, where curfew hours where brought ahead by one hour to begin at 9 PM through 4 AM. Speaking with the national broadcaster on Tuesday, December 15, Ngamije said that recent random tests carried out in the district returned a 10 percent test positivity rate among the citizens. This, he said is way higher than that of the rest of the country which currently stands at 2.6 percent. “The guidelines given to Musanze were based on results of random tests that were carried out in the district. Out of 100 people tested, over 10 were found positive. We had to change the strategy for Musanze,” he said, adding that there were also some medics who were found infected in the district. Meetings and conferences were also suspended in Musanze city for the next three weeks. Places of worship will operate once a week at no more than 30 percent of their maximum capacity. In addition, funerals in the district should not exceed 30 attendees. Meanwhile, for the general guidelines for the rest of the country, places of worship are allowed to host congregants filling up to 50 percent of their facilities’ seating capacity. In addition, from December 21, movements will be prohibited from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. until January 4; and all social gatherings including wedding ceremonies and celebrations of all kinds are prohibited within the same period of time. Rwanda so far has 6,747 confirmed cases of Covid-19, of whom 5,996 have already recovered. The country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 56.
