A 71 year-old Rwandan on Wednesday, September 2, succumbed to Covid-19, raising the tally of those who have succumbed to the pandemic to 17 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Health, the deceased passed away in Rusizi district, Western Province.

On the same day, the country reported 76 new Covid-19 cases and 27 recoveries.

Of the new cases, 47 were confirmed among contacts of confirmed cases in Kigali, while other 21 cases were reported among high risk groups in Rusizi.

For the last couple of weeks, Kigali has been the leading hotspot of Covid-19 country-wide, with workers in the currently closed Nyarugenge and Nyabugogo markets and their contacts being among high risk groups.

Also, according to the update, Gisagara district reported four new Covid-19 cases, while Rubavu and Huye districts confirmed three positive cases and one case respectively.

Wednesday’s results were obtained from 5,792 sample tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

In total, Rwanda has so far carried out 421,121 tests and the plan in place is to continue scaling up testing capabilities in the country so as to know the prevalence of the pandemic in different parts of the country and act accordingly.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Rwanda, the country has confirmed 4,218 Covid-19 cases of whom 2,071 have already recovered.