Senators found that some Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) are overly congested.
New cases of the New Coronavirus infections in Rwanda are continuing to rise steadily, with prison facilities now proving to be the latest hotspots, while the number of deaths also continue to be registered nearly on a daily basis, sending fears that the pandemic could deteriorate.
The Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 50 new cases, the highest in the last couple of months, majority of which were registered in Nyarugenge Rwanda Correctional Service facility, commonly known as Mageragere. The prison registered 27 new cases while tests in high risk zones resulted in 12 new cases in Rubavu district, 6 in Kirehe and 5 in Rwamagana.
Rwamagana district has in the past few days been registering a high number of new coronavirus cases also detected in Ntsinda RCS facility-14 in total and two reported deaths. The Wednesday death was also recorded in Rwamagana, an 88-year old man, according to the Ministry of Health.
Five consecutive deaths recorded in the last 3 days were all in Rwamagana, but it is not clear if the deceased are inmates in the prison facility. Rwanda has so far registered 41 deaths, while the COVID-19 cases are now 5,312 in total. Of those, 4,974 have recovered while active cases increased from 255 to 297.
The daily tests have also doubled over the last two days, nearly hitting 3000 tests while earlier than that the daily tests were below 1,500. The Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Health have warned that the country could fall back into tougher restrictions again if people become complacent and COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
A cabinet meeting chaired by President Kagame was expected to review existing COVID-19 measures.
Globally, countries are battling a new wave of infections, with some European countries re-imposing the lockdown. President Paul Kagame on Wednesday chaired a Cabinet Meeting which was expected to review existing COVID-19 measures but by press time it was not clear whether the government directives would be eased further or tightened in the wake of increasing new infections.
