Rwanda reacts to new COVID-19 variant and reaches a vaccine milestone

With the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Rwanda quickly announced tight prevention measures to protect its citizens of this rapidly spreading variant.

Despite strict measures, new COVID-19 cases and the number of people hospitalized continue to increase. According to daily updates released by the Ministry of Health, approximately 1,000 new cases are recorded every day.

To reduce the devastating effect of the virus, Rwanda is putting tremendous effort into vaccination and achieved an important milestone: as of December 31, 2021, Rwanda was among only seven African countries to reach the World Health Organization’s year-end objective of 40% COVID-19 vaccine coverage. As of January 9, 2022, 59.6% of Rwandans had received at least one vaccine dose.

Approximately one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine were sent to Rwanda from the United States according to the Rwanda Biomedical Center, among other donations. Inventive vaccination strategies were quickly developed to distribute as many doses as possible. Having already focused on elderly with underlying conditions, Rwanda is now vaccinating younger generations in the approved 12-17 year age range.

To support Rwanda's efforts, Health Builders is proud to support the coordination and distribution of vaccines to health centers and vaccination sites. As part of a holistic prevention strategy, Health Builders is also facilitating training of nurses in Rwamagana District on infection prevention control including the proper PPE usage.

We are honored to help mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on global communities and reach even more vaccination milestones in Rwanda. Together with the Ministry of Health and generous donors, we continue our mission to strengthen clinical care and health care infrastructure so every citizen can live a dignified, healthy, and prosperous life.