Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) says 2021 left Rwanda with enough vaccines to inoculate 70 percent of its population. It is in this regard that government looking at the possibility of administering Covid-19 jabs to children under 12 years of age. The development was announced by Dr. Hassan Sibomana, the Director of Vaccination Programme Unit at RBC during a televised programme at the national television on January 2. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set up the global vaccination targets for countries to inoculate 10 percent of the population by September 2021, 40 percent by December 2021 and 70 percent by Mid-2022. Asked if Rwanda was within reach of the WHO target by mid-2022, he said that the country was in comfortable position. “There should be no worries, the government has invested considerable efforts in this particular programme and we currently have enough vaccines to vaccinate up to 70 percent of the population,” he said. For those who have taken the first dose, the second one is already in stores, we won’t need to import it. For those who also need the booster, it is in the store waiting for you, he said. “So we are optimistic that we will achieve the target in mid-2022”. Currently, children between 12 and above are receiving their jabs in an exercise that started late November 2021. “It is possible to start vaccinating children below the age of 12, because if we complete 70 percent of the population, the remaining part will be largely composed of children under that age, so that is the main motive pushing us to extend this program”. Rwanda is among the African countries with the fastest vaccination programmes targeting the whole population at large. The country achieved the first global vaccination target in September 2021 after vaccinating 10 percent of its population. At the time, Rwanda had inoculated 13 percent of its population. It also registered the second global milestone in December 2021 after vaccinating 41 percent of its population, achieving the WHO’s 40 percent global target by 2021. By the end of 2021, over 7.5 million of the targeted population aged 12 and above had received at least one dose, while over 5.3 million had received two doses and 111,681 booster shots administered. 92 out of 194 countries missed the target. Out of 13 million jabs received by Rwanda in 2021, four million of them were purchased on the government’s budget while others were from donations and global initiatives accelerating fair access of vaccine distributions.
