Author: Nicole Kamanzi Muteteri

Govt. introduces robots in fight against COVID-19

the Ministry of Health launched the robots, Tuesday, May 19 at the Kanyinya COVID-19 Treatment Centre. They have been acquired with the support of United Nations Development Programme.

The five high-tech robots can perform a number of tasks related to COVID-19 management, including mass temperature screening, delivering food and medication to patients, capturing data, detecting people who are not wearing masks, among others.

Made by Zora Bots, a Belgian company specialized in robotics solutions, they are designed with various advanced features to support doctors and nurses at designated treatment centers, and can also be leveraged into screening sites in the country.

The robots have the capacity to screen from 50 to 150 people per minute, capture both video and audio data, and notify officers on duty about detected abnormalities for timely response and case management.

Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Minister of Health said that the idea of using the robots is aimed at reducing exposure of health workers to possible Covid-19 infection.
“Medics and other front-liners visit patients’ room many times to deliver medication, meals, carry out tests, among other things – and this may pose a risk of contracting the virus,” he said.

“These robots will fasten service delivery while protecting our valuable health workers against COVID-19 exposure.”

There haven’t been cases of medics that have caught the virus according to Dr Ngamije. However, he said there is a cleaner at a COVID-19 treatment facility in the country that tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Ngamije said that robotics engineers will be training the Ministry of Health staff concerning the use of the robots for about one month, after which it is expected that the ministry’s officials will be able to operate them.

Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovation said that COVID-19 has accelerated the need for digital solutions across various industries, especially in the health sector.

“There are various innovative solutions being applied to combat COVID-19, and the robots delivered today in these treatment centers, will be deployed to support our frontline health workers in treating and containing the pandemic by taking on routine tasks.”

According to Dr. Ngamije, more robots are expected to be brought in the country to assist in the COVID-19 fight.

May 20, 2020
Cabinet approves new RDB board members

Evelyn Kamagaju was appointed Vice-Chairman while other seven board members include Alice Nkulikiyinka, Diane Karusisi, Ivan Kagame, Eric Kacou, Solange Uwituze, Liban Soleman Abdi and Faith Keza.

Uwituze has served as the Deputy Director-General in Charge of Animal Resources and Technology Transfer at Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) since 2018. She has a Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition and a Master’s degree in Animal Sciences.

Ivan Kagame holds an MBA from the University of California. He is an entrepreneur and investor mainly in renewable energy.

Eric Kacou is an Ivorian national and the Co-Founder of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners, a firm that offers consultancy to businesses.

Kacou’s operations in Rwanda started with his OTF Group, a firm that played a role in developing competitiveness in the country’s human capital in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He has also led the Rwanda National Innovation and Competitiveness Program.

May 19, 2020
President Kagame pardons 50 abortion convicts

The development is part of the cabinet resolutions passed on Monday, May 18 and decided on many topics among which new guidelines for the prevention against the COVID-19 were released.

According to the same statement, apart from the 50 young women convicted of abortion, the cabinet also approved a Ministerial order granting conditional release of 3,596 convicts.

This makes a total of 3,647‬ convicts who are expected to be released with several obligations as citizens, also having to avoid recidivism.

May 19, 2020
New coronavirus prevention guidelines allow civil weddings, shifts curfew to 9 pm

The cabinet maintained the curfew but extended the curfew by one hour, from 8p.m to 9p.m (until 5a.m), allowing couples to have civil weddings with only 15 attendees.
Under the new measures which will run for 15 days until June 1, the government eased some restrictions.

The new developments are contained in a communication of cabinet decisions reached on Monday, signed by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente. Government also announced that inter-provincial travel (including to and out of City of Kigali) and taxi-moto transport will resume on June 1.

These are some of the latest Covid-19 decisions:

The Government has introduced a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am, when the total lockdown was partially lifted on May 1. Yesterday, the curfew was reduced by one hour and will now be observed between 9 pm to 5 am.

Since late-March, social gatherings, including weddings, have been banned. Under the new guidelines, however, civil weddings with 15 people are allowed; but related ceremonies such as church services and receptions are not permitted.

The cabinet statement said that borders will remain closed, except for goods and cargo, as well as returning Rwandan citizens and legal residents.

All returnees will be subjected to mandatory quarantine in accordance with existing health guidelines at their own cost.

Quarantine services for people returning from abroad were initially free.
The quarantine normally lasts for 14 days.

Moto taxis have been suspended from carrying passengers since the lockdown was ordered on March 21. But they are allowed to carry goods and other essential supplies. This will continue to be the case until June 1.

The cabinet also retained major coronavirus preventive measures.

For instance, schools remain closed until September, while churches and bars are still not allowed to open.

Major preventive measures such as wearing masks, keeping the required 1-metre distance between people and washing hands remain a requirement for everyone.

May 19, 2020
COVID-19: Police warns teachers and parents on face-to-face homeschooling

Some parents made arrangements with teachers for home-based learning, after the government directives to close schools until September due to the virus, where children from different families are brought together in groups to take lessons.

“People who are bringing teachers to their homes are violating the directives to prevent COVID-19. It is not allowed,” CP John Bosco Kabera, the spokesperson for Rwanda National Police, said in a tweet.

Kabera said that in response to a tweet from one Sylvie Nsanga, who pointed out that it was difficult for teachers and their students to observe physical distancing during home-schooling, especially during grouped sessions.

“We are bringing teachers in our homes to teach our children not knowing where they have touched and we are doing homeschooling in groups of different families,” reads one of her series of tweets.

The Police spokesperson explained that teachers were not allowed to find students in their homes.

He urged parents to adopt e-learning practices or following lessons that are being broadcast of public radio and television.

“Coaching in a sense where a teacher will bring together a few students to teach them is against the directives on social distancing that is in place, and so is prohibited at the moment,” Gaspard Twagirayezu, State Minister for Primary and Secondary at the Ministry of Education, said.

Irenee Ndayambaje, the Director-General of the Rwanda Education Board (REB) encourages students to study using the available online platforms, saying that the online learning materials are available for free for those who have access to the internet.

“The systems are interactive since there are tutors to help students and other users. The lessons on YouTube will not require internet charges after partnering with Telecom companies to finance the project,” Ndayambaje added.

For the students who are unable to access the e-learning platforms, the option is to follow the lessons through radio and television.

May 18, 2020
Former Minister and Senator, Prof Nkusi passes on

The sad news of his death was confirmed by one of his family members who was attending to him at the time.

Born March 20, 1950, Prof Laurent Nkusi served in different government positions.

Nkusi served as literature and language lecturer at the University of Rwanda for 24 years between the years of 1976 and 2000, before he was appointed Minister of Land and Environment for three years.

Nkusi was later appointed Information Minister before he served as the vice-rector in charge of academics at the Institute of Agriculture, Technology, and Education of Kibungo (INATEK).

Thereafter Nkusi was elected to the senate and completed his term last year.
He leaves a widow and five children.

May 18, 2020
Rwanda, Tanzania agree on cross-border truck movement

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr Vincent Biruta confirmed, in a press briefing on Friday that an agreement had been reached with Tanzania and trucks would resume moving on Saturday morning.

“Talks have been concluded. Movement of trucks to start tomorrow,” Dr. Biruta told the Press in a short message.

Tanzanian truck drivers were resistant to adhere to the measures put in place by Rwanda, where they would be required to hand over their trucks to their Rwandan counterparts who would transport the goods to their final destination, in order to minimise cross border transmission of COVID-19.

Similarly, Rwandan trucks in direction to Dar es Salaam were blocked by protesting Tanzanian drivers in revenge for the measures instituted by Rwanda. Dr. Biruta said that since the implementation of the measures, cross-border infections of coronavirus cases declined tremendously.

“We had a previous meeting where we were not able to conclude on two particular points,”

“One was on swapping of drivers at Rusumo border post. The other one was related to the escorting of trucks with perishable goods and fuel because those ones could not offload at Rusumo. So, we were stuck on those particular points,” Dr. Biruta had said earlier before the countries reached an agreement.

He said Rwanda had made proposals to Tanzania which would be discussed on Friday afternoon, adding that there was no option of not agreeing because both countries were looking to ensuring that the central corridor route is restored as soon as possible.

Dr Biruta said that businesswise, both Rwanda and Tanzania were losing given the situation in Rusumo and Benaco and both needed to find a solution.

“What we are discussing here is business. Rwanda is not the only party to lose in this standoff. It is business, I guess Rwanda is losing money in this situation, Tanzania, the same. We need to find a solution,” Dr Biruta said.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of the East African Community (EAC) Prof Manasseh Nshuti said that Rwanda remains focused on the measures to stop the spread of New Coronavirus, including cross border transmissions which are proving to be a problem in the region.

Dr Biruta explained that Tanzania had opted out of the Consultative Meeting of EAC Heads of State which was held on Tuesday, chaired by President Paul Kagame, the sitting chair of the EAC. Tanzania said it was more interested in bilateral talks with Rwanda to resolve the standoff.

At the same time, Kenyan Truck drivers were also protesting measures of handing over trucks to Rwandan drivers at Kagitumba One Stop Border Post but the situation has been resolved and trucks have started moving according to Dr Biruta.

Prof Nshuti said that a solution had been agreed on with Kenyan, which would see Kenya test truck drivers before arriving setting off for regional countries and they would be tested again at the destination, those tested positive are not cleared to ferry the goods.

He said relations with Tanzania remained jovial despite the situation, but the two countries would arrive at a solution, citing the deal for Rwandair to transport Tanzanian fish from Mwanza to the European market as an example of positive relations between the two countries.

Dar es Salaam Port handles 80 percent of the goods imported into Rwanda.

May 17, 2020
COVID-19: Two new cases recorded

The development has been announced during the daily update from the Ministry of Health. The two cases were obtained from 2,041 tests- the highest since March 14 when the country confirmed the first case of Coronavirus.

In total, the country has so far conducted 48,239 tests of COVID-19 since the outbreak.
As a result of strict directives in the fight against the COVID-19, Rwanda’s recovery cases have since May 11 surpassed active ones and the country has reported no deaths from the virus so far.

Rwanda recently eased COVID-19 lockdown and allowed some businesses to continue operations for two weeks, and the government is expected to give an update on the partial lockdown on Monday, May 19.

Meanwhile, citizens are still urged to abide by COVID-19 precautionary measures such as regular washing of hands and self-distancing and the wearing of face masks when in public or multi-family compounds.

May 17, 2020
COVID-19: Four more recoveries, no new case

According to the daily updates from the Ministry of Health, no new case was recorded among 895 samples that were tested in the previous 24 hours. The total cases are 287 and active cases remain 119, many of wo were truck drivers and their assistants from Tanzania.

Since the ease of the lockdown, on May 4th to May 18th, which allowed most businesses to resume operations for two weeks’ time, eryone has been urged to put on facemasks in public and in multi-family compounds, to continue washing hands regularly, and to practice social distancing among other directives.

The public is also reminded to always call 114- the toll-free line of Rwanda Biomedical Center, whenever they experience symptoms of this pandemic such as fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.

May 15, 2020
Gorillas Coffee Sells 1.5 tonnes of Rwandan coffee beans within seconds at Alibaba online auction

The online event was organized by the Rwandan embassy in Beijing aimed to promote Rwandan coffee which is available on the Chinese e-commerce market, thanks to the eWTP (Electronic World Trade Platform).

The 3000 bags of coffee (500grams each) packed by Gorillas Coffee Rwanda were sold at ¥ 118 (Yuan) per packet, equivalent to Rwf15, 536 each, making a total of about of Rwf46.6million in just 60 seconds.

Rwanda and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2018 signed an agreement that opened doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in the cross-border electronic trade by availing their products to the Chinese market through the eWTP platform.

As a result of the agreement, Rwandan coffee is available on Alibaba’s platforms and coffee lovers in China can access the product through Tmall, a subsidiary online platform of Alibaba.

This is the second time for such an event to be organised by the Rwandan embassy in China. Earlier this year, in a similar event held in Hangzhou City, up to 2,000 packets of Rwandan coffee were sold in about 10 minutes.

Rwanda’s Ambassador to China Amb. James Kimonyo and Eric Jing; Alibaba Group Director and Executive Chairman of Ant Group, joined a live-streamed sale event dubbed “National Treasure” organized by Alibaba Group Thursday evening.

“It is something that is very important. It removes middlemen between the Rwandan farmers and Chinese consumers. This increases the prices (for the farmer) naturally. That has made our farmers earn 4 dollars more. Before they were selling a piece for 8 dollars, now after joining the eWTP, the price went up to 12 dollars,” said Rwanda’s Ambassador to China Amb. James Kimonyo.

David Ngarambe, the CEO of Rwanda Coffee Company, said that such live streaming assists them in creating brand awareness, and make sales.

Wang Jiaxin, the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese embassy, in Rwanda said that Rwandan coffee has become more and more popular in China, and some branded coffee chains have it, for instance, Starbucks.

He added that well-developed e-commerce is greatly contributing to the increasing popularity of Rwandan coffee in the Asian country.

Last year, Gorillas Coffee Rwanda sold on the same platform a batch of 2000 packets of aroma coffee in just 20 minutes, meaning that this time around the sale was a historical record of its own.

May 15, 2020