Public servants are set to be deployed to monitor and enforce home-based care compliance by Covid-19 patients in the country, The New Times has learned. The initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour comes at a time the country is witnessing a worrying trajectory of Covid cases recorded daily. Since last month, Covid cases have surged, with health authorities attributing it to increased laxity, among other factors. This, officials say, has underscored the need to improve home-based care management, which, according to current statistics, account for 95 per cent of the total number of patients. The home-based care programme was launched last year by the Rwanda Biomedical Centre in anticipation that medical facilities could, at any time, get overwhelmed by the cases recorded daily. More recently, however, it emerged that patients under the programme violated Covid-19 guidelines, undermining the efforts to curb the spread of the virus. “The improvement of home-based care management requires mobilization of enough human resources to monitor and enforce compliance. To this effect, public servants are going to be formally dedicated to this important responsibility where they live in the City of Kigali,” the ministry said in a statement. The labour ministry declined to give further details. A reliable source familiar with the development told The New Times that the program was initially set to begin Monday. The source said that some public servants have received emails on their deployment, and that they would be required to regularly carry out assigned tasks. “We have not been briefed on what happens to our daily work, but many have been told that it is a sign of sacrifice, especially as the country seeks to mitigate the rising cases.” According to the source, each of them will be deployed in a specific village, commonly known as ‘Umudugudu’. “It is not entirely for the home-based care patients alone, we will also be tasked to monitor the others in that same village, but more caution will be subjected to the Covid-19 patients.” The source said that hygiene in various homes, diet, and education on the subject will be among the areas of interest. Since March last year, a total of 49,016 cases have been recorded, with 582 total deaths as of July 12.
