“Condolences to the family of 42-year old Rwandan who died,” reads a communique that accompanied the Ministry of Health’s update on COVID-19 in Rwanda, August 20.

On Thursday, yet another family lost a relative to COVID-19, bringing the number of victims to 11 since March 14 when the country confirmed the first COVID-19 case.

This victim died during a period where the country is fighting hard to prevent further spread of the virus which is in a new wave with huge increase of numbers in capital Kigali.

On Thursday, the country recorded 73 new COVID-19 cases including 48 in Kigali and 14 in Rusizi specifically in high-risk groups and the recently closed markets.

Rubavu closed the list with 11 new COVID-19 cases.

This brought the total confirmed cases to 2717 and 1,001 active cases from nearly 600 active cases in the last four days which were characterized by an exponential increase in new numbers.

The recoveries have today increased to 1,705 including 7 patients that were discharged on Thursday.

The country is strengthening measures to fight against COVID-19 with an introduction of an Auto-Sanitising Gate, an all in one innovation that provides temperature scanning captures data and disinfects all surfaces.

The decontamination of big buildings has also started with the multi-storied building of Makuza Peace Plazza in Nyarugenge – Kigali’s central business district.

Since the closure of two big markets in Kigali following big numbers that were traced among the occupants, the Ministry said it is soon launching a public testing to establish whether the country should be headed into lockdown again.

www.ktpress.rw