President Paul Kagame and Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on Wednesday held talks virtually on measures to curb the global Coronavirus pandemic.

The President said in a tweet that they discussed the importance of decisive health measures and global collaboration to deal with the pandemic.

The leaders also discussed efforts to soften the impact of the virus that has exceeded 400,000 confirmed cases globally. As of Tuesday, March 24, over 100,000 people have recovered from the infection and more than 18,000 have died, according to the World Health Organisation.

The pandemic has interrupting supply chains, halted productivity in multiple sectors of the economy and led to job losses among other effects. 

Economists have predicted that it could lead to deep global economic recession in 2020 albeit with most countries expected to recover by 2021.

In his post, President Kagame expressed gratitude for Canada’s assistance directly as well as through G20 response towards allocating sufficient resources in support of actions taken by Africa.

"I thanked him for reaching out and for offering Canada’s assistance as well as his support for a coordinated G20 member response towards allocating sufficient resources in support of actions taken by Africa. To end this pandemic, we must work together to get this right,” the President wrote.  

As of Tuesday, 40 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Rwanda, all stable and undergoing treatment.

Research and clinical trials for the cure and vaccine are underway in a number of countries under the coordination of the World Health Organisation.