Covid-19: Random testing taken to all districts

The Rwanda Biomedical Centre has deployed several testing kits in all districts of Rwanda, as the institution looks to generate latest data concerning the prevalence of the virus in all corners of the country. With an aim of testing over 4,000 people in the country, the exercise started on Thursday, January 14 and it is set to conclude on Sunday, January 17, 2020. In his exclusive interview with The New Times, Edson Rwagasore, the epidemic surveillance response manager at RBC, said that the exercise aims to assess the prevalence of the virus in the country amid the Covid-19 upsurge. “In this period, when the Covid-19 cases and related fatalities have spiked up, we need these kinds of exercises to assess the Covid-19 status in the nation, and trace the places which are more affected than others,” he noted. According to him, RBC is expecting 1,000 samples from Kigali city and 3,000 from other provinces. In Kigali city, the exercise was conducted by RBC in all the districts, whereas upcountry districts conducted them each. By press time, the tests had already been completed in some districts including Musanze and Gicumbi among others, but the whole exercise is expected to end on Sunday. When The New Times visited Kigali cultural village where the exercise was being conducted, medics were stationed on the streets approaching people and asking them for consent to be tested. The people were in various categories including walking passengers, those riding on taxi-moto bikes, private cars and public buses. The test exercise took about five minutes and tested people were asked to leave behind their contacts for medics to send the results. The tests were free of charge. Landry Rwagitinywa, a 17-year-old student who was among the test beneficiaries said he will not miss out on the opportunity. “I cannot miss this free opportunity, Covid cases and fatalities are increasing, so I also want to know my Covid-19 status,” he noted. Jean-Luc Benimana, the head of the testing center at Kigali cultural village lauded those being tested, adding that the people are responding well and some are even asking for the test without being approached. As of Wednesday, January 15, 2021, Rwanda had 10,316 confirmed cases in the country out of which 6,974 have recovered and 3,209 are still under treatment.

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Covid-19: Random testing taken to all districts