Rwanda was one of the first countries in Africa to receive vaccines against COVID-19. Even before the first doses arrived, the national EPI team had reached out to HISP Rwanda to develop a vaccine management system that would help them oversee the logistics of vaccine distribution using DHIS2, an Electronic Immunization Registry (EIR) that used Tracker to capture and maintain patient-level vaccination information, plus a custom application linked to DHIS2 to generate digital vaccine certificates.

During the implementation of the COVID vaccination registry, the team was faced with the choice between competing offers from proprietary software solutions and their locally owned DHIS2 system. Ultimately, the Ministry of Health (MoH) decided to keep DHIS2 as their primary data collection tool for COVID-19 vaccination, because its flexibility allowed it to be adapted to meet the country’s needs, and because it could both be implemented quickly and expanded to national scale using local capacity. This meant that when the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Rwanda in early February 2021, the MoH and EPI team were ready to begin Phase 1 of their vaccination plan immediately.
Supported countries: Chad, Madagascar, Rwanda

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health uses DHIS2 on tablet and mobile devices to make their COVID-19 sample collection, reception and results distribution process entirely paperless from start to finish
As the COVID-19 pandemic approached Africa, Rwanda convened a task force to plan and coordinate the country’s response. This group included subject matter experts from various ministries and other stakeholders. Together, they developed a COVID-19 response plan featuring several local innovations, including an entirely paperless process for screening and testing suspected cases and sharing the subsequent test results. By employing tablets for the collection of patient data at the point of testing, Rwanda has been able to set up mobile testing centers that can be deployed to key sites around the country.
Supported countries: Rwanda

The field sample collection program uses more than 300 Android tablets, which were distributed to sample collectors, quarantine sites, and health facilities around the country. Using these tablets and the DHIS2 Android Capture App, the system allows them to work offline as the health workers enter data directly into custom forms, and the date entered immediately syncs with the national HMIS database whenever internet is available. The national laboratory system was also set up with DHIS2 on their workstations for sample reception, processing and results return. DHIS2 generates a unique ID which is assigned to each sample at the point of collection, and which is used as sample ID for testing and sample identification. Once the tests are processed, results are automatically sent out by DHIS2 via SMS.

To meet the government’s request for vaccination certificates, HISP Rwanda re-purposed the technology they had developed for their COVID-19 case-based surveillance system (which provides digital certification of negative test results) to provide electronic immunization certificates for first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. By the beginning of April 2021, Rwanda had begun second-dose vaccination, using the vaccination status web portal developed by HISP Rwanda on a national level
Supported countries: Chad, Rwanda

The RBC-C19 is the official COVID-19 test and vaccination status application for Rwanda's national health implementation agency; Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) under the Ministry of Health.

By downloading this application, you will be able to carry your COVID-19 test results and vaccination records in your hands anywhere. This application is secure, and using it is voluntary.

HISP Rwanda developed a custom web layer to allow for bulk upload of sample and test data, improving efficiency and reducing time from sample collection to results dissemination

Rwanda was one of the first countries to adopt DHIS2 for COVID-19 surveillance in 2020, and developed several custom innovations, including implementation of a paperless system for COVID-19 testing using Tracker and the DHIS2 Android Capture App.

Supported countries: Rwanda

Fans can attend the opening games in Kigali in person thanks to a COVID-19 test results portal powered by DHIS2 and integration with Smart base and e-ticketing systems

What does DHIS2 have to do with basketball? Thanks to the innovative work of HISP Rwanda — part of the global HISP network — test results from Rwanda’s national COVID-19 testing system (based on DHIS2 metadata packages and the Android Capture App) are securely shared with web-based e-ticket management, travel registration, and athlete and staff health monitoring systems via the DHIS2 API, supporting a safe start to the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in Kigali.