Rwanda prepares to welcome students to schools with mass testing for COVID-19

Rwanda collected about 3,000 COVID-19 sample tests in schools to ensure the safety of students as a part of an advanced effort against the pandemic, according to a by CGTN Africa.

Thousands of Rwandan students will return to school after November 23. The Education Minister Valentine Uwamaliya said, "we started this week in partnership with Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), and we aim at testing at least all categories of students in all parts of the country."

The mass testing exercise will end on November 22 and determine how safe it is for more students to return to school.

Uwamaliya said that further actions will depend on the risk in a particular school, "of course if there is a big number of infected students in a certain center, we should first be able to settle the problem to ensure that there is no risk for the incoming students".

The Education Minister restated the objective to close schools was to ensure that the pandemic can be approached with a solution to ensure education doesn't stop.

Talking on the collection, the Team Lead for COVID-19 Case and Management and Coordinator for the Western Province, Menelas Nkeshimana, said that every province will undergo a minimum of 500 sample tests. The headteachers of the schools involved in the collection are reportedly asked to relax their guidelines depending on the results of these tests.