Covid-19: Over 50,000 Rwandans vaccinated on day one of campaign
Dutch Ambassador to Rwanda Matthijs Clemens Wolters (centre) and the UN Representative to Rwanda Fodey Ndiaye (right) wave to the KLM pilots on arrival of the first batch of 102,960 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccines at the Kigali International Airport on March 3, 2021.
Kigali,
More than 50,000 people were vaccinated against Covid-19 on Friday, the first day of a nationwide vaccination campaign, Rwandan Minister of Health Daniel Ngamije said.
"Generally the vaccination exercise started smoothly across the country due to adequate preparation in terms of personnel and other necessary requirements," Mr Ngamije said in a news program on the national broadcaster Rwanda Television.
The vaccines had been distributed to about 45 hospitals and 508 health centers across the country for the three-day vaccination campaign, which targets priority groups including health personnel, frontline workers and those older than 65 years or with underlying health conditions.
Mr Ngamije received the jab during the formal launch of the vaccination campaign at Masaka hospital, in the suburbs of the capital city Kigali.
He called on all those who are eligible for vaccination to receive their jabs.
Through the Covax vaccine sharing programme, the central African nation on Wednesday received AstraZeneca-Oxford and Pfizer vaccines that can inoculate 171,480 people.
Rwanda plans to vaccinate 30 per cent of its population by the end of 2021 and 60 per cent by the end of 2022, or some 8 million people, to achieve herd immunity against the virus.
In February, the Rwandan Health ministry said it has started vaccinating high-risk groups against Covid-19, notably frontline healthcare staff, with limited vaccine doses acquired through international cooperation.
