Donated X-Ray Machines Enhance Rwanda’s COVID-19 Battle

ADF STAFF

Two weeks after Rwanda reported its highest single-day number of deaths from COVID-19, the U.S. government donated five X-ray machines to the Rwanda Biomedical Centre.

Valued at $218,360, the X-ray machines will help diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients at the Kanyinya Treatment Center, Kibungo Referral Hospital, Kinihira Treatment Center, Ruhengeri Referral Hospital and University Teaching Hospital in Butare. The machines also can help diagnose other respiratory diseases.

The U.S. has donated nearly $16.9 million toward Rwanda’s COVID-19 response since the pandemic began.

“The United States and Rwanda are strong partners in public health,” Deb MacLean, officer in charge of the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, said at a handover ceremony. “By working together, we are saving lives every day.”

Previous U.S. donations funded the construction of hand-washing stations across Rwanda; public communications campaigns about COVID-19; vehicles to facilitate contact tracing; laboratory diagnostic equipment and supplies; training of front-line workers; and personal protective equipment and medical equipment, including ventilators, patient monitors, hospital beds, intensive care units, video laryngoscopes and pulse oximeters.

The spike of COVID-19 deaths and a surge of new infections was attributed to the virus’s highly infectious delta strain, Rwandan Health Minister Dr. Daniel Ngamije said in a televised interview. During a five-week period that ended July 7, Rwanda recorded 18,000 cases.

“From discussions with front-line doctors and patients, severity of the disease, new symptoms such as headache, fatigue and breathing complications, it is obvious that delta variant is present,” Ngamije said. “It used to take at least two months for Rwanda to reach such a big number of infections. For this wave, it took just four weeks to peak, another characteristic of the delta variant.”

Just more than 4% of Rwanda’s 12.6 million people have received at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

In July, Rwanda signed a $3.6 million partnership with the European Union (EU) to help upgrade the country’s laboratory capacity to help attract investors to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, The East African newspaper reported. The funds will be used to enhance Rwanda’s quality control for medical products and acquire certification from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“What we signed is a step to revamp and also strengthen the Rwanda Foods and Drugs Authority,” Clare Akamanzi, chief executive officer of Rwanda Development Board, told CNBC Africa. “The money we will receive from the EU will support the acquisition of laboratory equipment to make it a modern facility that will enable Rwanda to get a WHO certification.”

Akamanzi added that the WHO certification will help attract investors who want to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in Rwanda. The country has negotiated with vaccine manufacturers to produce vaccines domestically since May.

Rwanda needs at least 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to vaccinate 60% of the population — roughly 7.5 million people — by June 2022. As of August 6, Rwanda had administered nearly 854,200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reported.