The U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda on Sunday announced the new shipment of more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as part of Biden-Harris Administration’s global efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. government coordinated closely with COVAX and the African Union on the country allocations. U.S. donated vaccine doses are arriving on Sunday 16 January 2022, it said.
This donation helps protect the people of Rwanda, especially those who are most vulnerable, from the ravages of the COVID-19 virus. Increasing vaccination coverage will help build back the Rwandan economy.
“The United States celebrates with Rwanda [our] continued partnership to fight COVID-19” said U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda Peter H. Vrooman.
The U.S. Government has already shared more than 110 million doses worldwide and has pledged to supply half a billion more vaccines by 2022.
Rwanda is the first country to receive vaccines from this half a billion pledge.
Rwanda has so far vaccinated 6 million people with two vaccine doses (40%) and 8 million with one dose, while 500,000 have received a booster jab.
The government launched earlier last week a new phase of mass vaccination that aims to administer more than 1.6 million doses to people due for a second dose in 15 days.
The mass campaign starts this January 15, 2022 and follows a door-to-door needs assessment which was conducted by the local government and the ministry of health to understand impediments faced by citizens to get vaccinated.
CU/abj/APA