The Ministry of Health Friday announced that effective Saturday, May 29 AstraZeneca recipients will receive their anticipated jab, as part of the efforts to speed the country-wide inoculation drive. This comes weeks after the campaign met a gridlock owing to shortage of vaccines. However, on Thursday, Rwanda received a consignment of 247,000 doses, including doses donated by the Government of France. While in Rwanda, France President Emmanuel Macron, on behalf of his government donated 117,000 doses which he brought with him on his two-day visit to Rwanda that ended Friday. The new doses will primarily cater to those who got the first AstraZaneca vaccine and are due for the second and final dose. The move, according to the Ministry of Health, is expected to boost country’s efforts of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the population by end next year. “We are thankful to the government of France and other partners for their support making the vaccines available,” said Minister of Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije. Ngamije noted that the government will immediately start administration of second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, adding that continued discussions with stakeholders to receive more doses are underway. “We continue discussions talks with a variety of stakeholders on getting more vaccines so that we can vaccinate as many Rwandans as we can, in order to defeat this pandemic,” he added. As it has been, vaccine doses are expected to be distributed to all health centres in the country where they can be accessed by the beneficiaries. As part of the effort to boost the availability of vaccines in the country, Rwanda on Thursday signed a Euro 60 million (Approximately 71.8 billion) grant with the French Development Agency (AFR) which will go towards purchasing of vaccines. Rwanda’s nationwide vaccination program kicked off in March with priority given to high-risk groups such as frontline workers, people above 65 years, health personnel, as well as those with underlying health conditions. As it stands, data from the Ministry of Health indicate that a total of 350,400 were inoculated. This is a low average compared to the country’s ambitions of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of its people by the end of 2022. Like Rwanda, African nations have for the past months encountered challenges of accessibility of the Covid-19 vaccine. According to the World Health Organisation’s recent report, the continent needs at least 20 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the next six weeks to get second doses to all who received the first dose within the 8-12-week interval. A single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the report added, gives around 70% protection for at least 12 weeks. Data on the protection from one dose after 12 weeks is limited, however, COVID-19 antibodies have been found in the body up to 6 months after one dose. The full course provided with a 12-week interval gives 81% protection for an extended period.
