Twenty-one days after the Ministry of Health launched home-based care guidelines for Covid-19 patients, at least 762 patients are currently being treated at home.

Rwanda Today has learnt that since the launch of the programme, 337 have already recovered from their homes where they have been receiving the treatment.

Officials from Rwanda Biomedical Centres on August 19 announced that they had discharged 762 Covid-19 patients, especially the ones with mild symptoms and asymptomatic from treatment centres and admitted them to home-based care.

“It is now almost one and a half month since we started piloting home-based care and the process has been effective with half of all those discharged for home care recovered and now went back to normal life with others,” said Sabin Nsanzimana, Director General of RBC.

Mr Nsanzimana said that most people were fearing that home-based care would spark more infection but since the launch, there has been no homebased infection transmission.

“Covid-19 patients who lived with negative household contacts recovered without passing on the infection and for those who are still receiving treatment in their homes none of them has passed the virus to others,” says Mr Nsanzimana.

Mr Nsanzimana said they would wish to have all mild and asymptomatic patients discharged to continue with treatment at home but there are still underlying challenges.

“One of the greatest challenges that still hinder the home-based treatment to reach every part of the country many households are not eligible or do not meet the set criteria especially those in crowded areas that can facilitate the spread of the virus,”he says.

However, Mr Nsanzimana said the focus has been put on ensuring that home-based care reaches all parts of the country but with emphasis on training Community Health Workers to assist home caretakers of the patients at home.