The Rwanda Biomedical Centre has explained the recent surge in Covid-19 cases noting that going by the random tests conducted, the positivity rate had risen to 2.2 per cent from 0.5 per cent about two weeks ago.

The daily reported cases have surged this week with cases of Friday 11th June standing at 202 and 112 on 10th June. This is in comparison to previous weeks when the daily reported cases had dropped to around 10 or so.

Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre, explained that like the rest of the region, Rwanda has seen a resurgence of cases in recent days.

This has seen an increase in the positivity rate to 2.2 per cent in Kigali from 0.5 per cent.

He noted that in the surge, they had observed the emergence of clusters which include factories and communal places where people live in big numbers and have poor ventilation.

"There are some clusters of cases such as factories and other communal places where people live in big numbers in a small area without ventilation, we are continuing to observe the trend especially in Kigali and Rubavu where there was movement after the tremors,” he said.

He also noted that there remains border surveillance to observe new variants especially those that have been reported in neighbouring countries.  

"People at the borders and points of entry are making sure that we can detect the cases before they enter the country. The positivity of cases of people coming into the country, especially from Uganda are quite high and we are working with our colleagues in the region to control,” he said.

With the increase in new cases resulting in an increase in hospital admissions and the number of deaths, the government recently said that they are monitoring the situation to ensure that all patients are taken care of.

Dr. Aimee Geissler, the Global Health Security Director at CDC Rwanda, said that the region is experiencing new Covid-19 variants which are proving to be more transmissible.