Rwanda has carried out 33,303 sample tests of COVID-19 since March 14 when the pandemic was first reported in the country.

This was disclosed by the Ministry of Health on Saturday, May 2, in its daily update on the Virus. 

Saturday saw 11 new recoveries and 6 confirmed cases reported from 1,197 samples tested. This brought the total active COVID-19 cases to 135 against 120 recovered cases.

According to the Ministry of Health, samples are collected either randomly, from contacts who were traced or from people who called 114 and directed to nearby hospitals.

However, the number of sample tests do not reflect the number of people tested, as patients or those in quarantine are tested at least three times before being discharged.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every country should make efforts to test as many people as possible because this exercise helps to know the state of COVID-19 in a given country and can be based on while making decisions such as lifting lockdown among others.

All hospitals in Rwanda are capable of taking samples, and so far the country has the ability to test over 1,000 samples a day and deliver results in just 24 hours.

Collecting a sample involves inserting a 6-inch long swab into the cavity between the nose and mouth (nasopharyngeal swab) for 15 seconds and rotating the swab several times. 

The swabbing is then repeated on the other side of the nose to make sure enough material is collected. The swab is then inserted into a container and sent to a lab for testing.

Rwanda is so far one of the first African countries that have eased the COVID-19 lockdown after Ghana.

Public and private businesses among others will resume operations on Monday, May 4. However, only essential staff are to operate from the workplace while others are to continue working from home.