Rwanda is partnering with German scientists to improve local capabilities in terms of testing for Covid-19 variants. The government is currently conducting a comprehensive study to track the possible existence of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in the country, after the health ministry said they detected scientific evidence of the highly infectious variant among local cases. Last week, experts from the Robert Koch Institute, a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention, were in the country where they provided training to their local counterparts from the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), in terms of making laboratory tests for the three Covid-19 variants: Alpha, Beta and Delta. According to Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Minister of Health, the partnership is “for transfer of knowledge and technology.” In an interview with The New Times, Dr. Leon Mutesa, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Rwanda, said the German team’s intervention mainly focused on “Genotyping,” a technology used in recognizing the difference among variants of viruses and other organisms. “It will be a continuous partnership where they will be assisting Rwanda to develop such kinds of technology, so that even when new mutations or variants show up, we are able to adjust and carry out tests,” he said. Via their Twitter handle, the Robert Koch Institute also noted that further exchanges between them and RBC are planned. Meanwhile, in an interview with the national broadcaster last week Ngamije noted that local healthcare workers have encountered some patients with symptoms that might be of the Delta variant. “We are currently getting new symptoms; some of the patients are reporting with severe headache, general fatigue and lack of oxygen which are all vital signs of this variant,” he said. He added: “Another potential reason is that it comes with severe forms of symptoms and a high probability of death: This is one of the reasons we’re experiencing double digit fatality in a day,” he noted. The Delta variant, according to scientists, has an advantage over other strains. Here, the most important apparent advantage is that its mutations may make it more transmissible than any other variant, which would also make it the most dangerous variant yet.
