Rwanda will, effective Tuesday November 30, gradually roll out Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to elderly citizens aged 50 and above, the Ministry of Health announced om Monday. The roll out will also be extended to people aged between 30 and 49 living with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) or immunocompromising conditions as well as frontline workers. The exact detail of the implementation was not presented by press time, but officials said booster shots should be offered six months after being fully vaccinated. They clarified that it can be considered as the third dose for those who received a two dose type of vaccine or a second dose for those who received a single-dose type of vaccine. “Eligible individuals can get their booster dose at Health Centers, District Hospitals and other vaccination sites that will be communicated soon, Dr Tharcisse Mpunga, Minister of State in charge of Primary Health care at the Ministry of Health said in a statement. The statement also noted that the roll-out will begin in City of Kigali, followed by other districts gradually. The move is one of the efforts taken by government to further curb the spread of the virus, especially in the wake of the new Covid variant announcements. The country has not detected the new variant, but has further re-imposed a quarantine especially for arriving passengers, to further contain the new variant. Rwanda lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions a few weeks ago as the vaccine rollout reached a large part of the population, and infection rates remained subdued. Last week, the country extended its inoculation campaign in schools targeting children aged 12-17 years. The country seeks to inoculate more than 30 percent of the targeted population by end of this year.
