More than 230,000 Rwandans have been inoculated against COVID-19 in the ongoing nationwide vaccination rollout, starting from last week, the presidential office said Thursday.
The recipients included Rwandan President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame, who received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday at King Faisal Hospital in the capital city Kigali.
The president set a good example for Rwandans through the inoculation, Edson Rwagasore, Epidemic Surveillance Response Division Manager at the Rwanda Biomedical Center, told Xinhua by phone.
Rwanda plans to vaccinate 30 percent of its population by the end of 2021 and 60 percent by the end of 2022 to achieve herd immunity against the virus.
On Friday, Rwanda launched a countrywide inoculation of priority groups, including health personnel, frontline workers and those aged over 65, after receiving AstraZeneca-Oxford and Pfizer vaccines through COVAX.
On Wednesday, 211 refugees and asylum seekers aged 18 and above were vaccinated at Gashora Emergency Transit Center in eastern Rwanda’s Bugesera district. As of Thursday, Rwanda has recorded a total of 19,945 COVID-19 cases, with 18,236 recoveries and 273 deaths.
