Cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in a new upsurge, with Kigali remaining its hotspot in the country. On Friday, June 18, 451 people tested positive for Covid-19, which means a 6 percent positivity rate considering that 7,452 tests were conducted, according to updates from the Ministry of Health. The City of Kigali accounted for the largest share of such cases -- 48.5 percent -- as the virus was detected in 219 residents in one day. It was followed by Kamonyi District and Gicumbi District with 37 cases each, while Rubavu District had 32 cases, which is the third. Overall, 16 Covid-19 patients in Rwanda were in critical condition. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Rwanda had registered 422 positive cases of Covid-19 out of 5,770 tests that were carried out, show data from the Ministry of Health. This represents a positivity rate of 7.3 percent. Kigali accounted for about 176 of the recorded cases. The surge in cases comes after a significant decline that was observed a few months back. For instance, on June 6, 2021, the Ministry of Health reported that 34 people caught Covid-19 out of a sample of 4,434, a relatively low positivity rate of 0.8 percent in the entire country. Speaking to The New Times Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) said that the 7.3 percent Covid-19 positivity rate recorded on Thursday is one of the highest levels that Rwanda has recorded so far. However, he has not yet confirmed whether it is the highest record ever in the country. “The pandemic had been on high rise for the last 10 days; and the number of hospitalisations has also gone high. This is a sign that Covid-19 has spread again,” he said. Talking about the major underlying reasons for the surge in Covid-19 cases, he cited people who have been holding social gatherings such as birthday parties, a situation that increase the risk of exposure to the virus and its transmission. Such practices are defiance of guidelines meant to curb the spread of the pandemic. As of June 18, over 30,000 people had contracted Covid-19 while 378 had died from this infectious respiratory disease. It is to note that the entire African continent is in the midst of a full-blown third Covid-19 wave, according to a statement released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 17, 2021. The statement indicated that Covid-19 cases in Africa are surging by over 20 percent week-on-week as the continents third wave gains pace and nears the first wave peak of more than 120 000 weekly cases recorded in July 2020, new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows. It indicated that new cases recorded weekly in Africa have now exceeded half of the second wave peak of more than 224 000 weekly cases in January 2021. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia and Uganda have reported their highest number of new weekly cases since the pandemic began, it noted.
