COVID-19 IMPACT

There will no longer be requirement to wear face mask British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures including mandatory face masks in England as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Johnson’s…

A large billboard in Kigali urges men to go for circumcision When the COVID-19 virus erupted, programs to control the HIV virus came to a halt in nearly all countries. For Rwandan men though, they continued flocking to health centers for circumcision to protect themselves against the HIV/Aids virus. Newly…

Despite the social stigma, they agreed to share their ordeals after recovering from COVID-19: In red is Clarisse Umutoniwase, with laptop on a bed is Zachee Ntakirutimana and in white with a face mask is Turahayo Alfred from Ruhango district Medical doctors, scientists, medical experts and government officials are still learning about coronavirus as it…

Despite its limited material resources, Cuba is responsible for developing two of only 23 coronavirus vaccines to have entered phase III trials anywhere in the world – and it has another three on the way. Helen Yaffe (University of Glasgow) explains how the Soberana, Abdala, and Mambisa vaccines work; how they will roll out…

Rwanda has put in place heavy measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen the country manage to control the virus spread despite having had to go through at least three lock downs in Kigali and countrywide. Though these measures have seen many wear facemasks, stay at home and…

Scenes like these have become all too common. Hundreds spend hours in stadiums daily, then are fined, and let go For over a year now, the country has been in and out of different forms of lockdowns in a government attempt to control spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Except for…

Since last week, the country has been carrying out perhaps one of the most extensive vaccination programs for COVID-19 On March 11, marks one year after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In Rwanda, the first case was reported by the health ministry on March 14,…

Vaccines sample of the shipments that arrived in Rwanda this week and distribution was launched today Thursday to health facilities across Rwanda Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on COVID-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the…

Students of GS Shyogwe school Several schools and private contractors are counting losses following decision by Muhanga district to pick the food supplied to schools, and instead distribute it as aid during the COVID-19 lockdown. In March 2020, when government ordered all schools closed, public schools already had huge stocks…

People in Rwanda are so accustomed to the hug and other longstanding forms of greeting that if you didn’t do it, their first reaction is; this person is a foreigner From the time Rwandan society formed centuries ago, unique forms of personal greetings started to develop. These practices could be…

Armies of civilian volunteers have been photographed carrying sacks of rice, maize flour and beans – said to be delivered to different neighborhoods in Kigali About 1.5million people in Rwanda’s capital Kigali are back in a government-instituted lockdown beginning the night of January 18. This lockdown is to control the…

Despite his education, Gustave Gahindiro has been making and delivering Pies from his mother’s kitchen, a venture he doesn’t intend to stop For nearly a year, the vast majority companies have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic, but some small businesses in select sectors are seeing lots of new and returning…

Before the coronavirus pandemic, persons with disabilities in Rubavu had so much business. Not any more On the border between Rwanda and DR Congo, wheelchairs supplied millions of litres of water to Goma. In the Southern province, a cooperative for people living with disabilities knitted sweaters for schools. When the…

Sites like these are common across Rwanda. They were places of work, now they have padlocks on them – leaving nearly 100,000 unemployed Back in February and for years before, around the Giseminti-Remera suburb of Kigali, partying was order of night and day. It is a spot dotted with hundreds…

Such scenes of COVID-19 testing will continue for at least another four years before any vaccine is available Poor countries like Rwanda will have to wait much long to access any possible COVID-19 vaccine as rich countries have already snapped up billions of doses. It means that the two vaccines…

River Akagera in the far ground forms part of the border between Rwanda and Tanzania. Communities on Rwanda side have been hardest hit as they are no longer trading with Tanzanians March 21, government closed Rwanda’s land border and airspace in frantic efforts to block possible carriers of the COVID-19…

Rugogwe market in Ruhashya sector, Huye district. Before COVID-19, thousands owned stall like these. With a sudden lockdown, they used up the sales and capital. Not many were able to return to their stalls In February, Nyirandayishimye Patience, a mother of one, had a shop in Batsinda, a struggling Kigali…

In May, Police paraded this group of people it said had ignored Covid-19 measures preventing travel between Kigali and provinces. These people said they couldn’t survive in Kigali and had opted to go back to their villages One in five households in Kigali are making very tough choices to be…

Some people in Rwanda are still having to depend on food deliveries from different sources to survive The coronavirus pandemic has thrown between 88 million and 114 million people into extreme poverty, according to the World Bank’s biennial estimates of global poverty. The reversal is by far the largest increase…

This area of Remera would have been bustling with activity anytime of the day, all week. Not anymore, until the bars open up When the government closed bars in March and other strict COVID-19 measures imposed, more people actually bought alcohol and beverages, at least going by figures from the…

US-based Rwandan singer The Ben thrills thousands inside the iconic Kigali Arena By the end of last year, any given day was party time. And when it came to weekends, the temperatures even went higher. Concerts, live shows in bars and festivals kept revellers on their feet from year in,…

Teachers from private schools have been hit hard by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda Schools are unlikely to fully open anytime soon since they were closed on March 12, two days before the first COVID-19 case was announced in Rwanda. At least 14% of the 78,108 total…