For the first time since March 2020, this past week Rwandans went on with their businesses without worrying about the night curfew, which had almost
become part of peoples lives.

In the same Cabinet announcement that lifted the curfew, weddings, funerals, conferences and meetings were given a greenlight to be held at full venue capacity, while all land borders were also opened. It was a good week for very many people in Rwanda, the sense of freedom could be felt in the air in Kigali, as some who for the past three years had never crossed the border to visit their friends and relatives started planning trips.

A wide range of service-based businesses that were on their deathbed got a lifeline from the fact that they can now operate all hours. However, no one should forget that Covid-19 is still with us, or let people lax and we slide back into the fray, like it has happened before when people lowered the guard, leading to another surge.

It is also important not to forget that the strict enforcement of wide ranging Covid protocols — many of which were a tad inconvenient and costly, led to the current thaw in the virus, so we ought to continue observing the protocols in place.

People should continue wearing facemasks in public, test before attending events and social distance, at this level, the authorities have followed the science and played their part, going forward individual discipline is what will further flatten the curve.

The government and all its partners are to be commended for the great job done in the past two years. The efforts and investments in not only implementing preventive and treatment measures, but also availing

Covid-19 vaccines to all the corners of the country, heIped greatly. Vaccinating up to 60 percent of the population with both jabs for a lower income country like Rwanda is no easy feat. Kudos to the government for sparing no effort in
lobbying for vaccines around the world.

Rwandans are also to be thanked for adhering to all the measures, there countless richer counties where even achieving 30 percent vaccination rate is still a dream, largely due to vaccination apathy and other forms of vaccination resistance. However, the pandemic stretched the country's public health system to the limit, but also exposed key costly gaps that still exist.

There needs to be more research and proper documentation of best practices employed in the past two years, for instance, public health manuals should be developed including one for key interventions like home-based care.

Perhaps more importantly, we are grateful to our frontline workers across all sectors. It is important that they are motivated to remain on the frontline. Nobody knows when the pandemic will end, but for now, all effort must be made to ensure that life returns to normal and more focus on economic recovery and growth.