Random Covid-19 testing taken to the grassroots, exercise targets thousands

The New Times.

The Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) in partnership with the City of Kigali will on Saturday, January 23, kick-off a random testing exercise in all cells that make up the city.

In a tweet posted on Friday, January 22, RBC said that the exercise targets to test 125 people in each cell of the overall 161 cells that constitute Kigali. This implies that 20,125 people will be tested in total.

According to RBC, the service will be free of charge, and eligible for people who are above 70 years of age, those who have incurable diseases such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, blood pressure, diseases of liver and kidney, and contacts of already Covid-19 confirmed cases who have not yet been tested.

The Rwanda Biomedical Centre added that those who belong to the mentioned groups will go for testing at their respective cell offices at 7 a.m. on dates that will be communicated by their cell authorities.

“This exercise will help health institutions to ascertain the state of the pandemic in these groups of people and help in making appropriate decisions,” RBC tweeted.

The City of Kigali is currently under a total lockdown that took effect on Tuesday after witnessing an acute rise in Covid-19 infections. 

In a recent interview with The New Times, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Director General of RBC pointed out that the cabinet’s decision to put the city into a lockdown was the best way to curb the increasing number of Covid-19 positive cases and deaths under control.

Meanwhile, according to Nsanzimana, Rwanda is in process of acquiring Covid-19 vaccine that is expected to provide a long-term solution to the pandemic country-wide.

He noted that the country has already placed its order of one million emergency doses and is not only ready to receive this first batch, but also ready to immediately begin the vaccination exercise.