Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. COURTESY PHOTO.
Top officials in Rwanda have issued five new Covid-19 preventive guidelines for Churches to follow ahead of potential reopening in less than two weeks, Uganda Christian News has learnt.
The New Times, an English language newspaper in Rwanda says President Paul Kagame chaired a meeting with relevant stakeholders on 16 June, 2020 at Village Urugwiro, and reviewed the measures which have been in place since March this year, aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19
According to the news source, the President spoke of easing restrictions on places of worship in 15 days, upon epidemiological assessment.
Dr Usta Kayitesi, the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), told The New Times that the Inter-religious Council of Rwanda is currently working with the nation’s COVID-19 command post at various district levels to inspect prayer houses “that meet the requirements” so as to advise the government accordingly.
RGB reportedly asked religious leaders to conduct an inventory of all houses of worship, their location, accommodation capacity in normal circumstances as well as the number of people they could accommodate in exercise of social distancing measures.
The New Times reports that every house of prayer must have hand sanitizers, infrared thermometers and measures to uphold the use of face masks.
“In the event of re-opening, children below the age of 13 will not attend, while those aged 13 to 18 will only attend in company of a parent or guardian,”
In the same meeting, KT Press Rwanda reports that President Paul Kagame allowed religious wedding ceremonies to resume but not exceeding 30 persons.
Fifty-nine (59) new COVID-19 cases were identified out of 2287 samples tested in Rwanda on 22 June, 2020. This brought the cumulative number of confirmed cases to seven hundred and eighty-seven (787), , according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.
To date, three hundred and seventy (370) patients have recovered and been discharged, including eleven (11) in the past 24 hours. The number of active cases is four hundred and fifteen (415) and two (2) deaths.
