The Covid-19 test positivity rate in Rwanda rose significantly from 3.7 per cent recorded on Sunday, 18 July to 10.5 percent on Monday. In an interview with The New Times, the Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Dr Sabin Nsanzimana attributed this 6.8 percentage points rise in positivity rate to the reduction in the number of tests carried in a single day. “Yesterday (Monday) we tested 10 times less the numbers of people who were being tested during the mass testing campaign, so the positivity was mainly driven by symptomatic people voluntarily going for testing at health facilities,” Nsanzimana said. With the end of the mass testing in Kigali, the testing of Covid-19 will continue being carried out across the country mainly by people presenting obvious symptoms of this virus, he said. The symptoms may include fever, dry cough and tiredness which are the most common, but also; headache, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath and chest pain. The mass testing was covered by health authorities, initially targeting over 100,000 people in Kigali. It ended on Sunday, July 18 with over 124,000 people tested during the weekend. A total of 4770 positive cases were recorded during the two-day campaign. The same exercise was undertaken in the other eight districts also put under lockdown with the capital, as measures to contain the spread of the virus in the country. RBC reminds to take seriously any of the symptoms that they may experience and go for test as soon as they have these symptoms to minimise the chances of them infecting people around them. They are also strongly advised to isolate immediately they test positive to make sure the scale of transmission does not keep increasing, especially since this will inform the next course of action for the country as a whole regarding the measures to contain the virus. In the meanwhile, people who live in parts of Rwanda that are currently under lockdown, are called upon to observe the measures set in places, more particularly the stay-at-home orders. Also, those who are self-isolating at home are encouraged by the Ministry of Health, to wear their masks at all times, avoid sharing utensils with those they live with, and to reach out to healthcare givers in case of severity of all symptom, say a persistent fever.
