President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame were on Thursday, March 11, vaccinated against Covid-19, a week after the country received its first consignment of the vaccines. “As part of the ongoing nationwide vaccination rollout that has seen more than 230,000 people vaccinated, President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame received their Covid-19 vaccines at King Faisal Hospital,” the Office of the President tweeted. Rwanda began the Covid-19 vaccination exercise on March 5 and has so far vaccinated 230,000 people, equivalent to almost 2 per cent of the country’s total population. Among those vaccinated so far include health workers, security personnel, teachers, refugees and asylum seekers hosted in Rwanda, inmates, and people aged 65 and above, and people with underlying medical conditions. Other vaccinated priority groups among others include staff from key hotels that will host Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) guests, and taxi-moto drivers. According to the Ministry of Health, at least 30 percent of the population are expected to be vaccinated by the end of 2021 and 60 percent by the end of next year. Rwanda has so far confirmed 19,846 Covid-19 cases, of whom 18,118 have already recovered. The country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 271.
