The Rwandan government will launch its third phase of the mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday, having already administered more than one million vaccine doses, reported CGTN Africa.
The vaccination program began in February, starting with frontline health workers and high-risk groups of people, including elderly people and people with chronic diseases. The third phase will open the door for all adults in the capital, Kigali to get the vaccination.
The Rwandan government is aiming to vaccinate more than 90 percent of Kigali’s population aged 18 years and above in the next two weeks.
The commencement of the third phase of vaccinations comes just a few days after Rwanda received a donation of 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines from China. Another 188,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine also arrived in the country.
The Rwandan health ministry said it is also planning to launch a door-to-door vaccination campaign targeting high-risk groups, including the elderly, those with mobility challenges, and pregnant mothers.
The health authorities have administered a total of 1,012,031 vaccine doses, with 422,925 people fully vaccinated as of Saturday, August 21.
“Rwanda plans to vaccinate 30 percent of the population by the end of 2021 and continues efforts to acquire sufficient doses, through direct purchases and other arrangements, to ensure as many Rwandans as possible are protected from COVID-19,” the health ministry said.
Rwanda has so far recorded 82,630 COVID-19 cases with 1,010 deaths.
In related news, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the African continent crossed 7,466,187 as of Saturday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stood at 187,969. Some 6,578,403 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease so far.
South Africa is the worst COVID-19 affected African country with over 2,690,000 cases, accounting for nearly 36 percent of Africa’s cases.
