Rwanda on Thursday, July 23 recorded 21 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the tally of confirmed cases to 1,710 since outbreak of this pandemic in the country in mid-March.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, of the new cases, seven were confirmed in Kigali among residents of villages under lockdown.

Other new cases include which were recorded in Rusizi District and another confirmed in Nyamasheke District, both in Western Province.

For the past weeks, Kigali and Rusizi have been the leading hotspots of this pandemic in the country, especially Kigali which has experienced a hike in positive cases since end of last month.

On the same day (Thursday), the country recorded 22 new recoveries, which brought the total number of recoveries to 889.

The results were obtained from 5,534 sample tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

In total, Rwanda has carried out 231,186 sample tests since mid-March.

Since the outbreak, five people have succumbed to the pandemic, two of these were peacekeepers serving on a UN mission.