A total of 75,056 people received Covid-19 vaccine jabs on Friday, March 5, as the vaccination exercise kicked-off country-wide.

According to the Ministry of Health, of those vaccinated, 2,051 are from Kigali, 15,007 from the Northern Province, 21,812 from Southern Province, 20,072 from Eastern Province, and 16,114 from Western Province.

The identified priority groups that received jabs first are frontline workers including health workers, security officers, people above 65 years, as well as those with underlying health conditions among others.

"Target this weekend is almost 25 percent of Rwanda’s 98,000 teachers,” the ministry added in a tweet.

At least 30 per cent of the population are expected to be vaccinated by the end of 2021 and 60 per cent by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije, who also took a jab on Friday, underscored that adhering to Covid-19 preventive measures remains vital.

"I thank all Rwandans for their patience as we work to vaccinate everyone in the months ahead. In the meantime, please continue observing all prevention,” he said.

Rwanda is among few African countries that began vaccinating their population against Covid-19, thanks to the COVAX framework and international cooperation. The country has so far acquired over 370,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

In addition to batches received by the country through COVAX, Rwanda is set to get other doses through the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) initiative amounting to 2.6 million doses.

A total of 19,426 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Rwanda, of whom 17,751 have already recovered.

The country’s death toll stands at 267 people since March last year.