Some new studies report that a combination of Covid vaccines could trigger stronger immune responses than sticking with one kind of shot. That is why countries like Canada and France allow individuals to receive the second dose of vaccine of their choice, even if it would be different from the type they received on the first dose.

In Rwanda, recently concerns were raised on social media platforms about people who received different types of Covid vaccines by accident. Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson, answered in the interview with The New Times, on June 4, they need not worry for there was no known health risk associated with receiving different vaccines, but insisted that they were being followed up individually.

However, with different studies on the issue of mixing and matching Covid vaccines going on and some agreeing that it could be advised in order to boost body’s immune system and to fight new variants of Covid, Rwanda doesn’t plan to accommodate the idea at the moment, State Minister for Primary Healthcare and  told The New Times.

"For us, we don’t have that option because we don’t even have enough vaccines. Second, on our side we are not able to do those clinical trials locally to make sure that it is really safe to our citizens,” Lt. Col. Dr Tharcisse Mpunga said. "However, as long as the information from research concludes that it is effective, we will maybe give chance to people who want to mix vaccines as long as we get enough vaccines,”

Dr Mpunga explained that since Covid-19 is a new disease, there are a lot of ongoing studies trying to understand clearly the nature of the disease and how it can be effectively treated or prevented. He said that some show positive results when it comes to the benefit of mixing vaccines.

"Given the development of the ongoing research, it has been now seen that as much as possible can get mixed vaccines, they can reduce serious side effects of one vaccine, second also, it can cause long term efficacy of the vaccines,” he added.

So far, Rwanda has used mainly two types of Covid-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, whereby almost 6 per cent of the population received two doses of one of the two vaccines, Mpunga said.

Dr Daniel Ngamije, the Minister for Health, told RBA on Sunday that the country hopes to secure 4.5 million additional doses of Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson in the coming months, as part of the national vaccination effort.