The Rwanda government plans to offer vaccinations against the new coronavirus free of charge to all frontline officers against the COVID-19 in the East African nation, the ministry of Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije revealed Sunday.
The senior Rwandan government official explained that the government is set to shoulder all costs to secure the vaccine as soon as possible where priority will also be given to older persons aged at least beyond 65 years old.
“These are the groups that are given priority to get the vaccine at zero cost, ” Dr Ngamije said.
According to him , the government is also doing everything to be ready to receive the vaccine when it is deployed and the first batch could be received around March next year.
While providing for a good acceptance of the vaccination by the inhabitants, the minister assured that the government mobilized the resources which will facilitate a gradual increase in the vaccination coverage from 20 to 60% among the general population.
The policy and guidelines of providing free coronavirus vaccinations and all target groups in the first priority phase will be unveiled soon, a source close to the ministry told APA in Kigali.
With the envisaged free vaccinations, Rwandan health officials are also emphasizing to encourage the concerned groups to get COVID-19 vaccinations promptly soon after the vaccines are developed.
Rwanda so far has confirmed 6,528 Covid-19 cases, of whom 5,892 have already recovered.
According to Saturday’s Covid-19 update, a young girl aged 14 and a 61-year-old man succumbed to the virus in Rwanda, raising the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 56.
CU/abj/APA