How Rwanda beat the odds to defy the Covid-19 onslaught

With a population of 12 million, of whom 83% live in rural areas where access to doctors is often scarce, the odds seemed stacked against Rwanda to deal with Covid-19. Yet its containment plans proved its salvation.

Officials in the tiny central African country watched the pandemic unfold in Europe, Asia and the US with growing concern.

On March 3 2020, nearly two weeks before it reported its first confirmed case of Covid-19, the government had formed a joint task force to draw up the country’s national response plan.

The objective was to stop “human-to-human transmission of the virus and caring for those affected”, the ministry of health said.

Weeks before its first confirmed case, the country was already offering free Covid-19 tests, WHO Rwanda reported.

On March 14, Rwanda reported its first confirmed case in a person who had arrived from India. By March 16, there were seven confirmed cases. On March 20, international flights were suspended for 30 days.

On March 21, the government ordered a two-week lockdown. The country’s borders were closed, with only Rwandans and cargo being allowed through.

The country confirmed its first death from Covid-19 on May 31.

By the end of June in Rwanda, the country’s caseload was just over 1,000 cases and one more person had died, doubling the death toll.

Up to April 20, SA had reported more than 1.5 million cases and nearly 53,000 deaths, Rwanda had nearly 24,000 cases and 325 deaths.

Former Rwandan health minister Agnes Binagwaho said when they learnt China had a problem managing the spread of the pandemic, they stopped flights and started rigorous checking and tracing protocols.

That Rwanda already had structures in place to combat epidemics was a critical tool in containing the virus.

“There is cholera, Ebola ... there are things that are put in place at the time the alert is given,” she said.

Lessons learnt during the 2018 Ebola outbreak had helped sharpen government’s response to epidemics.

“The government of Rwanda follows science,” she said.

From the start, people with Covid-19 who needed hospitalisation were sent to dedicated clinics. A Covid-19 toll free number was set up for people seeking help.

As with the Ebola epidemic, Rwanda rolled out mass media campaigns to increase social awareness of the pandemic.

Official communications were broadcast on Twitter, with official accounts on the platform being used to debunk conspiracy theories.

According to “Lessons Learned from Rwanda”, a paper published in January by the Annals of Global Health, the country’s success in containing the spread of Covid-19 is largely due to early planning and “aggressive use” of innovative strategies such as drones to broadcast information and deploying robots at treatment centres.