Kigali, 27 December 2020 – The Rwanda Biomedical Centre updated guidelines for discharging a Covid-19 patient from Home-Based Care. For asymptomatic and mild patients followed up in home-based care, one negative result of Covid-19 PCR or Rapid test performed at a Health Facility after 14 days of isolation is enough to have them discharged. This means that after 14 days of isolation, asymptomatic or mild patients will have to go for checkups at health facilities and have COVID 19 tests done as opposed to having tests performed in their homes by health care providers.

Following results from various scientific studies and also as reflected in the recent WHO and CDC recommendations, there is an emerging evidence that the virus is no longer replicating after 10 days of symptomatic infection or culprit contact. This means that there is very low risk of Covid-19 transmission, therefore patients can go to health facilities.

Contacts of patients can immediately go to health facilities for checkups without having first to isolate for 14 days.
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For more information, contact

*Julien M. Niyingabira,
Rwanda Health Communication Centre Division
Rwanda Biomedical Center
Tel: +250 788 606 072
Email: julien.niyingabira@rbc.gov.rw

Download the press release here