Rwanda Biomedical Centre has disclosed that the country could have the first round of vaccination against the Covid-19 virus in February or as early as next week. The government has ordered for one million emergency doses as it embarks on a two-year plan to immunise 8 million people or 60 per cent of the country’s population. The ultra-cold freezers that will store the vaccines have been purchased while the personnel that will administer the vaccination process have been trained. This announcement comes at the time new infections in the country are rising at unprecedented levels while, in some parts of the world, the new variants of Covid-19 are firmly established. This shows that the Covid-19 situation has changed compared to March 2020 when the entire country was placed under the first lockdown. The rollout of vaccines is of course a critical part of the strategy to fight the virus. However, it is not the only strategy, especially given that the duration it will take to vaccinate the target population in Rwanda will be long. Also, there are still some restrictions on the use of Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children. Therefore, even with vaccines, government control measures are extremely essential. Efforts to curb the spread of the virus have seen the government impose stringent restrictions, particularly in Kigali city, where a new lockdown is in force and schools have been closed. These latest measures stirred frustration among some citizens. Moreover, the numbers show that the health system is already stretched with the new Covid-19 health facility in Kigali almost running out of beds. The virus is spreading fast and if it continues to exert pressure on the health system, even patients suffering from other diseases will not get the necessary treatment. We strongly encourage everyone to adhere to national control measures. We also understand that there’s scepticism among a section of the public about the safety of the vaccines because they were developed so fast. This fear stems from the fact that, normally, it takes several years to develop vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) has dismissed these concerns, saying that although the process to develop the approved vaccines was relatively short, standard procedure was observed.
