The chargé d’affaires of the French Embassy and the Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) have just signed an agreement to launch a digital pilot project to combat covid-19. The implementation of this project will promote wider and faster case detection.
The signing of an agreement between the Chargé d’Affaires of the French Embassy in Kigali, Jérémie Blin and the Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, allows the launch of a project to detect new cases of covid-19 in rural areas.
The city of Kigali, the districts of Gicumbi (North) and Nyamasheke (West) have been targeted for equipping 400 community health workers with a smartphone application. This will be used for the rapid detection of covid-19 cases.
“The application will help strengthen pandemic surveillance and appropriate patient management,” according to a press release issued after the ceremony.
This project, with a total cost of approximately 223 million and 100 thousand Rwandan francs financed by France, will be carried out over three years. It will follow up on research conducted by RBC’s medical research unit in partnership with the Pasteur Institute and the Nancy Clinical Investigation Centre in France. This pilot project may be generalized throughout the country if necessary.
The use of digital tools, whose use is booming in Rwanda as a communication tool within the health system, brings added value to the implementation of the national strategy against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gérard Rugambwa
