The Ministry of Health on Tuesday, July 21 announced they had carried out 7,039 sample tests in a single day.

This is contained in its daily Covid-19 update, during which they said they registed 26 new cases and 10 recoveries over 24 hours.

This is the first time to carry out such a number of daily Covid-19 sample tests since mid-March when Rwanda reported her first case of the pandemic. 

So far, Rwanda has carried out over 220,000 tests.

The milestone is a result of the government’s efforts to decentralize the Covid-19 testing exercise.

Different from earlier in the year when all tests were being processed by the National Reference Laboratory, the government has so far established seven more testing laboratories countrywide.

The testing facilities are set in the district's of Nyagatare, Rubavu, Rusizi, Kirehe, Huye, Rwamagana and another one in Kigali at Rwanda Military Hospital.

According to the Ministry of Health, 24 of the new Covid-19 cases were detected in Kigali among high risk groups and those living in villages under lockdown. 

Two other cases were recorded in Kirehe district, Eastern Province.

In an interview with The New Times, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) explained that the high risk group mentioned in the statement is made up of people who were in detention and transit centres.

"This is a group of people who have been in transit and detention centres and have been dispatched after we detected cases in these centers. 

Some were followed up, tested and put in isolation, while we are still tracing others,” he said, adding that: "The cluster also involves people who might have come in contact with this group of people.”

End last month was when the first Covid-19 cases were confirmed in a detention centre. By then, 72 new cases were reported in a detention centre located in Ngoma district, Eastern Province.

So far, the country has conducted a total of 221,039 Covid-19 sample tests since March and reported 1,655 Covid-19 cases, of whom 848 have already recovered.

Also, five people so far succumbed to the pandemic in the country.