At least 46,000 commercial motorcycle operators commonly known as taxi-moto are to be vaccinated in the latest drive aimed at expanding the vaccinated population to protect people in Rwanda from Covid-19. According to Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) officials, at least 300,000 people in general across the country will be vaccinated in the next one and a half month. The campaign started on Tuesday, August 3, from two sites in Kigali namely Camp Kigali and Gikondo Expo Grounds as well as at health centres targeting people aged 40 and above. The same campaign is also targeting people in the service sector, especially those that are most exposed to Covid-19. Taxi-moto riders, hotels employees are among the targeted categories and for them, everyone will be inoculated irrespective of the age. Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also among those to be vaccinated. Speaking to The New Times, Daniel Ntaganda, the chairperson of Rwanda Federation of Taxi-Moto Riders (FERWACOTAMO) said that the initiative to vaccinate all riders was timely, saying that they are very vulnerable. He said their target is to use at least five days for all of them to be vaccinated across the country but this will depend on the availability of vaccines. Over 26,000 moto-riders in Kigali and other 20,000 from upcountry are set to be vaccinated. “All taxi-moto riders are happy with the vaccines and we thank the government for considering taxi-moto riders among categories that are more exposed to the pandemic,” he said. All the groups to be vaccinated in this new campaign will receive the Pfizer vaccine, according to officials from RBC. Many taxi-moto operators who spoke to The New Times said they were happy and could not wait to get their jab. Jean Baptiste Mfashijwenimana from Gasabo District said that many of them had missed the vaccine in the first campaign, adding that others had refused to take it due to misguided rumors that it has side effects. “Before being vaccinated, we were more exposed to the pandemic due to the nature of our work. We meet different people every day whose health status we do not know. We are now 100 percent aware of the benefits of vaccines,” he said. Aimable Macumi, another rider from Kicukiro District said that he is no longer afraid of Covid-19 vaccines. “We used to hear a lot of rumors regarding the vaccines and I was initially afraid to take it during the first round but I’ve finally learnt that it has no bad effect on me. It will protect me instead,” Macumi said. He said that even in the event he gets infected, he stand a higher chance of not getting sick or at worst succumbing to the virus than before he was vaccinated. The latest campaign, RBC said, will continue to be rolled out in different districts starting with those with high Covid-19 positivity rate. Government has been vaccinating many people depending on the availability of the vaccines. Meanwhile, officials at the Ministry of Health assured Rwandans that the set target of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the population will be achieved despite initial delays in delivery. The State Minister in charge of Primary Healthcare Tharcisse Mpunga said that Rwanda is waiting for over three million doses which should be in the country by September. He said that so far in the country, there are vaccines that can inoculate up to 200,000 people. By Tuesday, 466,522 people in Rwanda had been fully vaccinated.
