The following article was suggested by one of our readers—if there's an idea you would like us to cover, please submit it here.
Effective Wednesday, April 7, construction works at Hakan Peat Plant project will stop, following a lockdown imposed on some sectors in Gisagara, Huye, and Nyaruguru districts on Tuesday.
The sectors are Ruhashya and Rwaniro in Huye District, Gikonko, Kansi, and Mamba in Gisagara District, and Ruramba in Nyaruguru district.
The new directives which will be reviewed after three weeks were issued by the Ministry of Local Government as it moved to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in the three districts.
According to Minaloc, only essential workers will be allowed at the Gisagara based power plant and will have to first test negative for Covid-19.
They will also be required to reside at the plant’s facility during the three-week lockdown.
Launched in 2017, the project is expected to add 80MW of electricity to the national grid once completed. According to plans, it will be completed in this year.
Meanwhile, as per new guidelines, only vendors selling foodstuffs will be allowed to operate in markets located in the sectors under lockdown.
Also, businesses that bring together many people will only be allowed to accommodate 50 per cent of employees.
A district Covid-19 task force is expected to first carry out an evaluation before giving a green light to the business.
Places of worship are also closed in the six sectors.
In an interview with Rwanda Television on Tuesday, the Minister of Local Government, Jean-Marie Vianney Gatabazi, said that vulnerable people in the affected districts will be provided with basic commodities.
The state of Covid-19 in the three districts
According to statistics by the Ministry of Health, since the beginning of April, the country has recorded 1,079 new Covid-19 infections as of Tuesday April 6.
Of these, 542 cases equivalent to more than half of the tally of new infections since April 1, were reported from Gisagara, Huye and Nyaruguru district.
Dr. Menelas Nkeshimana, the Team Lead for Covid-19 Case Management at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, told The New Times that the spike of Covid-19 cases in the three districts may be attributed to defying preventive measures.
"People have let their guard down vis-à-vis adhering to Covid-19 guidelines. Considering that it is now more than a year since the outbreak of this pandemic, some people are no longer taking the virus seriously, which fuels its spread because people are not observing precautions,” he explained.
Nkeshimana also mentioned that for the country to curb the virus spread, there need to be collective efforts from the government and the public to ensure that preventive measures are observed.
Also, he added, we should speed up the vaccination campaign so as to be ahead of the virus.
So far, 348,926 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Rwanda.
Since March last year, the country has reported 22,862 Covid-19 cases. Of these, 20,705 have already recovered, while 314 passed away owing to the virus.