How Rwanda is Managing Its Covid-19 Vaccination Rollout Plans

It's been over a year since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic worldwide. In an amazing feat of science and technology, a number of safe and effective vaccine candidates have been developed. Most developed countries are well-advanced in rolling out vaccinations. The process is much slower in developing countries. In Rwanda, the government set a target of vaccinating 60% of the population of nearly 13 million, by the end of 2022. Rwanda received the first batch of vaccines in early March 2021, from the COVAX initiative: 342,960 Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. Rwanda also received 50,000 donated doses from India on March 5th, 2021. Weeks before the vaccines arrived in the country, the health ministry prepared its storage and distribution capacity. In addition to preparing regular refrigerators used for other vaccines, Rwanda purchased five ultra-low refrigerators to store the Pfizer vaccine at -70 degrees Celsius, writes Agnes Binagwaho for The Conversation Africa.