The Minister of State in charge of Primary Healthcare, Dr. Tharcisse Mpunga has said that the situation might return to normal in case the country doesn’t register new variants of COVID-19.

Dr. Mpunga made the revelation during a press conference held on 15th January 2022 where he explained that the sharp decrease in new positive cases registered between 3rd and 14th January might be considered to ease COVID-19 related restrictions.

The report of the Ministry of Health released on 16th January 2022 indicates that the positivity rate stands at 3.2% from 5.1% recorded between 4th and 10th January 2022.

The percentage was confirmed after 7162 people tested positive out of 147,000 sample tests.

Last week, the country announced plan to inoculate 1.6 million people against COVID-19 in 15 days. Dr. Mpunga has expressed optimism for the situation to be back to normal in consideration of reducing positive cases and increasing number of vaccine recipients.

“The current efforts are promising for life to be back to normal in case the country doesn’t confirm emergence of new variants of COVID-19. Considering the pace at which patients are recovering without falling critically ill following the emergence of Omicron variant and developed higher level of immunity among vaccine recipients; there is optimism that measures will be eased if the number of vaccinated people goes higher,” he said.

Dr. Mpunga further revealed that the country did not register a large number of critically ill patients after the confirmation of new variant of COVID-19 in December 2021.

As at 15th January 2021, Rwanda reported 11 admitted COVID-19 patients out of more than 4,000 people who tested positive.

The decline in critically ill patients is mainly attributed to increasing number of vaccine recipients where close to 8 million people have received the first dose, over 6 million received two doses while more than 600,000 received the booster jab.

Rwanda targets to vaccinate 70% of its population by July 2022.

The current COVID-19 preventive measures were instituted on 7th January 2022.

The current COVID-19 preventive measures were instituted on 7th January 2022.