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Rwanda COVID-19 Vaccination Success Story

Bigirimana Noella 1,*, Nsanzabaganwa Christian 2, Byiringiro Fidele 2, Hitimana Nadia 3, Mutesa Leon 4,5, Nsanzimana Sabin 1

1 Rwanda Biomedical Center, Kigali, Rwanda
2 Rwanda Military Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda
3 Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Kigali, Rwanda
4 Centre for Human Genetics, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
5 COVID-19 Joint Task Force Committee, Kigali, Rwanda


INTRODUCTION

From late 2019 when the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged, there were concerns about African countries' ability to withstand the pandemic [1]. As the pandemic was severely affecting Europe and America, overwhelming their healthcare systems. Experts started warning that Africa's weak healthcare systems would not be able to cope [2]. However, a number of African countries, including Rwanda, managed to effectively control the pandemic compared to many advanced countries [3,2]. After the development of COVID-19 vaccines, wealthy countries raced to procure enough doses and this left low-income countries unable to have access to enough vaccines. African countries were able to secure and receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX (the COVID-19 global access initiative, co-led by GAVI, the WHO and CEPI) and others [3]. Among the few countries, Rwanda served as an exemplar in controlling the pandemic and conducting successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout during the first quarter of 2021 [5].

Category: Outbreak report

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