30pc Rwandans get full dose of Covid vaccine
Wednesday December 08 2021
Health workers administer Covid-19 vaccines in Rwanda. More than 3.8 million people in Rwanda have received the full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Rwanda has reached the 30 per cent vaccination coverage after more than 3.8 million people received the full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ministry of Health data indicates that 6.3 million more people also got their first jab under the ongoing mass vaccination campaign extended to children between 12 and 17 years, in addition to offering booster doses to groups deemed at high risk recently.
The country has so far administered 108 booster vaccine shots to frontline workers, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions amid reports of Omicron variant spreading globally.
“This milestone is highly attributed to leadership, partnership, coordination and community engagement,” Health Minister Daniel Ngamije said, adding that the current vaccination coverage sets the government on a good track to cover 70 per cent of the population by latest December 2022.
Rwanda, with an estimated population of 13 million, plans to have 9.3 million people fully vaccinated by the end of next year. The target implies 10.8 million more vaccine doses are needed.
The population that has received at least one dose of the vaccine currently stands at 45 per cent.
The December 6 data, issued by the multilateral task force on Covid-19 which tracks, coordinates and advanced delivery of coronavirus health tools to developing countries, indicates that Rwanda has so far received and administered 9 million vaccine doses.
The country has secured an additional 22 million doses whose supply is still pending.
Target
According to the taskforce, 39 per cent of Rwanda’s population will be fully vaccinated at the end of 2021 based on current vaccine delivery schedules under initiatives such as Covax, the African Union vaccine acquisition programme, bilateral deals and dose sharing agreements.
The Health ministry data said the vaccination steering committee was inching closer to reaching 100 per cent of adult Kigali population fully vaccinated after registering over 93 per cent coverage mid-November.
The country continued to record a steady decline in coronavirus infections and Covid-19 linked deaths, a trend that enabled the government to reopen almost all sectors of the economy, including lifting restrictions on movement and gatherings to fully inoculated and tested members of the public.
Only 20 new Covid-19 infections were recorded out of more than 8,384 tests conducted. No case of the new Omicron variant has been recorded.
However, the government on November 28 suspended direct flights to southern African countries where the new Covid-19 variant was first detected, and has since imposed a seven-day quarantine for travellers from countries and regions affected by the variant.
Health official suspended
Earlier, President Paul Kagame suspended Dr Sabin Nsanzimana the Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), the lead government agency that coordinates health programmes, citing “matters of accountability under investigation.”
He had been holding the position since June 2019.
Dr Nsanzimana has been a key figure during the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020. He is the second high-profile leader in the health sector to be suspended since the first Covid-19 case was reported. Dr Diane Gashumba, former Health minister, was fired in February 2020 due to “habitual gross errors and leadership failure”.
RBC has been on the frontline of Rwanda’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. It was recently designated as a Covid-19 vaccination centre of excellence by the African Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.
Rwanda Investigation Bureau has confirmed an ongoing investigation on matters of accountability involving Dr Nsanzimana. Prior to his appointment, he worked on large-scale intercountry medical projects and HIV and Ebola pandemics.
Details of the investigation remain concealed, but, since 2016, the Auditor General’s reports have put RBC on the spot over malpractice and misuse of funds.
Before Dr Nsanzimana was moved to the centre by his predecessor, Jeaninne Condo, in 2019, RBC was questioned by Parliament over fraudulent payments, delays to make disbursements for various health programmes, drug stock management failures, and outright fraud. The then RBC leaders promised to “do their best” to clean up their accounting.
RBC ran on a budget of more than $150 million before the pandemic, a sum comprising both government allocations and donations.
Operating under the Ministry of Health, RBC has been an implementation organ since 2011.
It is responsible for coordinating various health sector programmes, including ensuring timely transfer of funds required by hospitals, health centres, and civil society organisations to implement various projects.