Private clinics in Rwanda that perform Covid-19 rapid tests on Monday started the execution of the new tariff as communicated by Rwanda Biomedical Centre on August 1.

Effective August 9, people can now be tested for Rwf5000 to get rapid antigen test, which has been going for Rwf10,000 since the outbreak of the virus early last year.

The development is expected to lead to more voluntary testing, since some had been complaining that the cost of testing was prohibitive.

Over the past seven days, 74,476 tests have been conducted and there is an expected increase in numbers of people coming in for tests according to hospital staff.

Danny Musa, the operations manager at La Croix du Sud Hospital said that since the lockdown was lifted, majority of people coming to test for Covid were those who wanted to attend wedding ceremonies or those working in a high risk environment sent by their respective institutions.

"The average number of people who came to test privately was low in comparison to others but we expect a rise in numbers now that the price is halved,” he said.

He, however, said that evaluation can be done over the coming consecutive days to confirm the increase.

As of Monday, 2,157,915 tests had been carried out in Rwanda since the outbreak of the virus in March 2020.