Effective Monday, February 8, every passenger arriving in Rwanda will be required to present a negative Covid-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of boarding their flights.
The new measure was taken by a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, February 2, that, among others, extended the lockdown in Kigali until the end of this week.
The move (lockdown extension), according to the government, seeks to sustain the gains of the previous lockdown in the city.
Currently, all passengers arriving in Rwanda show a PCR negative test taken within 120 hours before departure. Upon arrival, they are tested again and put in isolation at designated hotels for 24 hours as they wait for their results.
Explaining the reason behind the change, Minister of Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije said that the move is in bid to prevent a surge in Covid-19 infections detected among arriving passengers.
He said: "We have had several cases whereby arriving flight passengers show negative Covid-19 results taken in not more than five days prior to their departure, and test negative upon arrival, but after not more than seven days they test positive.”
"This means that they contracted the virus between the time they took their first test and when they arrived in the country, but the virus could not be detected by then,” he added.
The Minister said this while appearing at the public broadcaster, alongside other officials.
Ngamije emphasized that: "By requesting a negative test taken in not more than 72 hours before boarding a flight, the first test (taken before departure) will be more accurate.”
Self-isolation for seven days
"All arriving passengers must self-quarantine for seven days and take a PCR test at the end of this period,” reads cabinet meeting minutes announced by the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to the Ministry of Health, the quarantine will ensure that for people who contracted the virus but the virus was not detected upon arrival, they will be identified before they infect several other people.
"The PCR test taken after seven days of self-isolation period will be free of charge, and we expect this move to help us to control this virus and closely monitor the new variants being confirmed elsewhere in the world,” Dr Ngamije said.
According to the World Health Organization, the incubation period of Covid-19, which is the time between exposure to the virus and symptom onset, is on average 5-6 days, but can be as long as 14 days.
Ngamije among others underscored that the government will be ready to assist arriving passengers in self-isolation by offering GPS bracelets or/and doing a daily follow-up to know how they are doing in those seven days.
According to Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), the bracelets that have GPS are currently being used to monitor some Covid-19 patients undergoing home-based care so as to prevent any unnecessary movements that these patients might attempt to make.
RBC says that though these equipment are still few, there are plans to acquisition more of them so as to serve as many home-based Covid-19 patients as possible.