The government will, on Tuesday, June 8, start administering 100,600 new doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in different health centers across the country, as the government strives to keep the virus at bay. The development comes after all those that were vaccinated for the first round for both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer received the second and final doses, bringing the number of inoculated citizens up nearly 3 per cent of the population. According to Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the division manager of Rwanda Health Communications Center, this new drive will focus on elderly from across the country. “Since June 7, different health centers will be delivering the vaccine and people aged 75 and above will be the target,” he told The New Times in an interview. The vaccination drive, according to Mahoro, will take place at health centres in all parts of the country. “It is a nationwide activity, and we have already sent a half of the doses, the remaining half will be sent after 21 days for the second jab,” he noted. During the first vaccination drive, over 290,000 citizens were vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine while 51,000 others had got Pfizer. The New Times understands that the vaccines were obtained through the Covax facility, a WHO-backed mechanism for equitable access to vaccines across the world. As of June 7, Rwanda had recorded 27,245 Covid-19 cases, of which 26.225 have recovered and 350,000 people have already been vaccinated.
