The World Health Organisation (WHO) has applauded Rwanda “for instituting a strong system” that has enabled the country to “effectively confront” the Covid-19 pandemic. In a tweet dated Tuesday, October 20, WHO Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Rwanda has been running all-of-government response to bring Covid-19 outbreak under control, following the fundamentals from testing and contact tracing to wide use of public health measures.” Tedros also congratulated President Paul Kagame and the people of Rwanda for the achievement. #Rwanda has been running an all-of-government response to bring #COVID19 outbreak under control, following the fundamentals from testing & contact tracing to wide use of public health measures. Well done, my brother @PaulKagame & the people of ??! pic.twitter.com/G2ErWyD8SL — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 20, 2020 The WHO boss was commenting the global health body’s video titled “Sharing Covid-19 experiences: Rwanda’s response”, that summarizes how the country managed the pandemic since outbreak until now. “Rwanda responded quickly to Covid-19, thanks to high-level leadership, a multi-sectoral approach, strong disease surveillance systems within the country and on its borders, the use of technology in the service of public health and community engagement,” reads a statement by WHO displayed in the video. A glimpse on Rwanda’s response Rwanda confirmed its first Covid-19 case on March 14. Afterward, the country imposed strict measures such as a total lockdown, where all activities apart from essential ones were halted, in bid to contain the pandemic. Later, the country began to ease Covid-19 directives, however, in phases so as to keep track of the pandemic’s prevalence and take appropriate measures. One of the technologies that Rwanda is using to combat Covid-19 include the deployment of robots in Covid-19 treatment centres, a move that has arguably reduced contact between medics and Covid-19 patients, therefore reducing risks to contract the Virus. Rwanda also set up the command post, a coordination unit where multi-sector officers meet to coordinate the tracing of contacts and other interventions, which has created harmony. Rwanda also scaled up mass testing, where so far, the country has done over 535,000 Covid-19 tests. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Rwanda, the country has registered a total of 4,992 Covid-19 cases of whom 4,797 have already recovered. The country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 34 people. According to Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Minister of Health, WHO has played a critical role in the apparent effective Covid-19 response by Rwanda. He said: “The whole policy of preventing this disease, all of these measures were implemented as recommended by WHO. They supported us in setting up strong surveillance, and this helped a lot to contain the spread of this pandemic.” The minister also noted that the fight against Covid-19 is ongoing, therefore the need for continuous capacity building. The pandemic is still there, we’re still re-enforcing our capacity for testing and engaging our population in this fight against Covid-19, he added.
