Rwanda says begins COVID-19 vaccinations

In a tweet, Rwanda's ministry of health said the country's National Vaccination Program had begun "vaccinating high-risk groups, notably frontline healthcare staff, with WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines acquired through international partnerships in limited quantities". The initial vaccination phase, the ministry said, will be followed by a wider roll out with supplies secured via the World Health Organization's COVAX scheme to facilitate vaccine access by poor and middle-income countries.

Rwanda said on Sunday it has commenced COVID-19 vaccinations with limited supplies of vaccines acquired through unnamed international partners and said the programme had started with frontline healthcare workers. The central African country has been battling a surge in infections of COVID-19 which forced the government to re-impose a lockdown last month in the capital Kigali.

Authorities banned movement in and out of the city, except for essential services and for tourists. In a tweet, Rwanda's ministry of health said the country's National Vaccination Program had begun "vaccinating high-risk groups, notably frontline healthcare staff, with WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines acquired through international partnerships in limited quantities".

The initial vaccination phase, the ministry said, will be followed by a wider roll out with supplies secured via the World Health Organization's COVAX scheme to facilitate vaccine access by poor and middle-income countries. Additional supplies would also be secured via the African Union (AU) window. The AU has secured more than 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for its member states. So far Rwanda has recorded about 17,000 cases of COVID-19 and 236 deaths. (Writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)