For the first time the country recorded cases of Coronavirus outside Bujumbura province in the countryside of Kayanza and Gitega.PHOTO|FILE.
Burundi’s public health ministry this Saturday July 3rd announced 24 new Coronavirus cases after 256 people were tested from the provinces of Kayanza, Gitega and Bujumbura.
According to the Burundian government on July 27th to 20th July 2020 a team from the ministry of health conducted the testing on the 256 suspected cases, among those tested the results of 24 people turned out to be positive for the virus.
“Of 12 suspected patients only one person tested positive for covid-19 at Kayanza Hospital located in Kayanza province”, reads the statement.
For the first time the country recorded cases of Coronavirus outside Bujumbura province in the countryside of Kayanza and Gitega.
According to the Burundi’s ministry for health out of the 54 COVID-19 patients 3 of them were discharged after retesting and cleared to have recovered from the virus, currently the total number of Coronavirus cases in Burundi stands at 194.
Burundi’s government early last week announced new measures to fight the pandemic that includes the extending of COVID-19 tests to various provinces countrywide.
“We have taken serious measures to fight Coronavirus in the country which includes the reduction of soap price by 50 percent”, said President Evariste Ndayishimiye while addressing the crowd on July 1, 2020 marking the 58years since Burundi gained its independence.
Burundi’s president said that soap and water prices will be slashed by 50 percent for citizens to easily afford and use the products for washing hands in efforts to curb the spread of the virus.
The Government said that it will pay the 50 percent of the soap price to producers and local manufacturers of the product.
Coronavirus is believed to have originated from Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and spread rapidly worldwide, over 10 million people have been infected by the virus according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.
In response to curb the spread, countries closed borders and airspace while restricting movements within the territory.
As of July 3, 2020 more than 10 million COVID-19 cases were confirmed globally, including 517 337 deaths according to the World Health Organisation.
In Africa by July 3 at least 329,796 people tested positive for the virus while more than ten thousand have died.