If all Covid-19 containment measures are observed both in public and individual families, the pandemic will be contained, The New Times has learnt. The Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, confirmed the development on Friday, July 17, in an interview with The New Times. Dr Nsanzimana explained that a recent graph from the Ministry of Health which accumulated figures for the past four months (March 14- July 13) since the first coronavirus case was reported in the country showed signs of improvement in the fight against the pandemic. According to the analysis which showed estimates on the trend of virus reproduction number, there has been a gradual decrease in the possibility of transmitting the infectious disease amongst the public. The basic reproduction number (Ro), according to epidemiologists is an indicator of how likely an infectious disease, such as Covid-19 can be transmitted from one person to another. In other words, Ro reflects the mean number of new cases generated by a new confirmed case. Globally, every country records the current status of the pandemic. This is measured by looking at how contagious or transmissible the infectious disease is. In most countries, it is measured in the basic reproduction number (Ro). According to the epidemiologists, if that figure is less than one, the outbreak is likely to die out. But if the figure is more than one, there is a chance of the number of cases increasing. However, in Rwanda’s context the figure is currently less than one, (.9 to be specific), a report presented to the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates. In this regard, Dr. Nsanzimana is of the view that the disease is controllable. Since the outbreak spread in the country, testing has so far been one of the measures strengthened in a bid to defeat the virus. For instance, over 200,000 tests have been carried out with a median of 1368 tests recorded per day over the past four months. On the other hand, the government has established eight satellite testing laboratories that have a capacity of testing over 1000 tests per day in a bid to further decentralize testing of the pandemic as well as contain it. What do the demographics show? Meanwhile, according to the four-month analysis, it is clear that men hold up a bigger percentage of infections (79%) while women account for the rest of the percentage (21%). One can argue therefore that infections in men are approximately four times more than women. Besides, demographics also indicate that a bigger percentage of the cases (92%) is for people who are above 50 years of age, with 78% percentage of the total cases in the population of 40-year olds and above while people above 30 years of age account for 49% of the total cases. According to the Ministry of Health, some of the high-risk zones include markets, shops, hotels, banks among other places that attract a lot of people. However, the public has been called upon to observe the preventive measures including, social distancing, regular washing of hands and wearing a face mask both in public and private homes.
