Since the Coronavirus entered Rwanda on March 14, 2020, it kept on spreading quickly to all the districts of the country.
Since the first case, different measures of prevention were put in place by the government but the pandemic did not stop to spread.
On March 20, 2020, the Ministry of Health confirmed six cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) that were added to 11 and it made the number of people diagnosed with the virus in the country to 17.
On March 22, 2020, new announcement confirmed two new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) bringing the number of people diagnosed with the virus in the country to 19.
On September 1, the ministry reported 79 new Covid-19 cases, of whom 51 were confirmed in Kigali’s high risk groups.
By that time, since outbreak of the pandemic in Rwanda, the country had confirmed 4,142 Covid-19 cases of whom 2,044 have already recovered. The Covid-19 death toll was at 16.
However, as people continued to abide by the guidelines and prevention measures against the pandemic, cases went down like in October 2020 where some services which were closed reopened again with some limitations.
A cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, October 27, resolved to increase the maximum number of people who can attend weddings and burial events, among other resolutions.
Church wedding ceremonies and burials were allowed to host 75 people maximum, from the previous limit of 30 attendants. This was due to a positive mindset of the citizens in the implementations of the guidelines and prevention measures.
In previous days especially this week, after the government eased many services and increased curfew hours by 10 pm, there was a tremendous increase in new cases because the guidelines were not fully implemented by the citizens.
According to Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the spokesperson of the Ministry of health, the number of infected people keeps on increasing because some people are not abiding by prevention measures.
He said however that in the past, some periods met high increase in covid-19 infection numbers and reduced later.
“This was because during these periods people respected the measures of prevention so the spread of the pandemic came down. But, since the citizens observed that the number of new cases goes down, they also stopped respecting prevention measures, that was the main reason for increase of cases but we can win the battle when we join efforts.” He said.
“We call up on the general population to continue respecting Covid1-9 prevention measures including wearing well the face mask, leaving one-meter social distancing, washing hands with soaps and clean water, avoiding mass gatherings and making unnecessary movements.” Niyingabira said.
Keen vigilance required
The Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, on Wednesday, December 16, urged health workers country-wide to remain vigilant against Covid-19.
He put out this announcement during a press conference that brought together the Ministers of health, local government, sports, and trade and industry as well as Rwanda National Police, to shed more light on the recently Covid-19 directives.
By the time of the announcement, three active cases of Covid-19 among health workers were registered.
According to Ngamije, although the situation of health professionals is being keenly monitored, vigilance remains vital.
“Currently, the state of the virus among health workers is not alarming, nonetheless, we recently detected some infections among health workers in Rubavu and Musanze districts,” he said. “This might have been caused by negligence in regards to adhering to Covid-19 preventive measures and hence contract the virus from either patients or fellow health workers.”
He went on to say: “We urge health workers to remain vigilant and abide by all preventive directives, especially in these times of the pandemic, because you never know the condition of the person you’re coming into contact with.”
Rapid tests are being administered country-wide among health workers, Ngamije said, especially among those that come into direct contact with patients or in hospitals, to know the overall situation and take appropriate measures.
Currently, overall, Rwanda has confirmed 6,832 Covid-19 cases, of whom 6,036 have already recovered. The country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 57.
The Express News
