The heart of our culture is under attack from the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Rwandans are known to be physical types, not those muscular kind but those who love body contact. Our traditional form of greeting is a warm hug as well as shaking hands. It is not rare to find a Rwandan dangerously dodging heavy traffic just to cross the road to shake your hand or shaking all the hands of a roomful of people. While in most countries it would raise suspicious eyebrows same sex people will hold hands comfortably in public, and a greeting kiss is the norm. Although Rwanda has not recorded any case of Novel Coronavirus, all those greeting habits are being discouraged to reduce the risks of attracting the pandemic. But there is no need to panic. The Government seems to be on top of things and, as usual, it is leveraging technology operate state-of-the-art detection equipment at entry points, well-equipped isolation and treatment centres and a toll-free phone number. Indeed it is the huge investments in digital healthcare that will determine how the country handles public health risks. Only this week it signed a groundbreaking deal with Babyl, a subsidiary of UK—based Babyl Health which, and the partnership will result into “the world’s first comprehensive fully integrated mobile healthcare service.” It will see the creation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) for better management of the healthcare system. But most importantly, patients will not need to make physical appearances at health centres, they will only need their phones to consult their doctor, make appointments, receive prescriptions and even pay the health insurance contributions. With all those efforts put in creating a modern medical foundation, authorities are confident they can handle the COVID-19, but Rwandans should learn to abandon their old greeting habit, for the time being at least.
