All Rwandan hospitals will start conducting COVID-19 tests effective next week in a move to boost capacity, APA can report on Wednesday.
This decision follows the establishment of new centres countrywide, a senior health official disclosed in Kigali.
The Rwandan Health minister, Dr Daniel Ngamije said the new testing centres will be added to the existing National Referral Laboratory in the capital, the University Teaching Hospital in the southern city of Butare and the Rwanda Military Hospital located at Kanombe, a suburb of Kigali.
It is expected that in all these centres, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) a technology that tests for Covid-19 by detecting the virus’s genetic material in a sample collected from a patient will be used.
The new testing approach is opposed to antigen tests that detect specific proteins on the surface of the virus or antibody tests that test for Covid-19 by looking for antibodies that are made by the body’s immune system in response to this specific virus.
PCR testing is regarded as the ‘gold standard’ for the detection of some viruses and is characterised by high sensitivity and specificity.
In addition to PCR tests, Rwanda, last week launched the use of validated antigen rapid tests, which, according to Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), will be used to carry out quick tests in areas with high prevalence of the virus.
These antigen tests will not necessarily be conclusive, since some of the tested people will have to wait and have a PCR test too, it said.
As of Tuesday evening, Rwanda reported 231 new cases of COVID-19, bringing its total confirmed infections to 3,537 along with one more death from the viral disease.
The East African country is currently focusing on ramping up its number of tests for the virus.
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CU/as/APA