The Rwandan government has expressed displeasure over the United Kingdom’s government’s decision to ban travelers from the east African country in order to stop the spread of mutant strains of Covid-19, reported Africa News.
Last week, the UK’s Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced that his country had added Rwanda, Burundi, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to its coronavirus travel ban list with effect from Friday, January 29. He said the decision was a response to new evidence showing the likely spread of a coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa to the newly banned countries.
In a statement posted on its official website, the Rwandan government pointed to the country’s response towards the virus that is transparent and consistent.
“Rwanda’s overall response to Covid-19 including testing, surveillance, contact tracing, containment, and treatment and reporting has been consistent, transparent and corroborated by third party entities,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement added that Rwanda is one of the few countries that require a PCR Covid-19 test for all departing passengers and all those in transit.
The Rwandan government also argued that the country did not join in the widespread bans on travelers from the UK in December 2020 over the variant discovered in parts of the UK.
In the statement, the government has requested the UK to give clarifications on the motivations behind the arbitrary decision by their government to impose the travel ban on Rwanda.
Rwanda has reported 15,459 COVID-19 cases so far. The death toll due to the virus has reached 198, while the total number of recoveries has crossed 10,272. The country has so far conducted 890,156 Covid-19 tests.
Australia-based Lowy Institute has ranked Rwanda first in Africa and sixth globally in managing the Covid-19 pandemic and making the information accessible to the public.
