Rwanda is the latest African country to fully vaccinate at least 10 percent of its population thereby achieving a target set out by the World Health Organization (WHO) to do so by the end of September.
According to Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, 1,399,753 people in Rwanda have received two vaccine doses while 1,840,527 people have received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of September 20. Data from the WHO indicates that Rwanda has received at least 3,213,610 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Rwanda joins 13 other African nations which have also fully vaccinated at least 10 percent of their populations. The island nation of Seychelles leads the way with 72 percent of its population vaccinated followed by Mauritius with 55 percent and Morocco with 45 percent.
The other nations are Tunisia (26 percent), Cape Verde (19 percent), Comoros (18 percent), Eswatini (16 percent), Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa (all 13 percent), Mauritania (12 percent) and Lesotho and Equatorial Guinea (both 11 percent).
Countries heavily reliant on donors for receiving vaccines have generally experienced low vaccination rates compared to those that have dedicated themselves to also procuring their own vaccines as most donor aid schemes are yet to gather pace.
Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of all regions globally with about two percent of the nearly six billion doses given globally being administered in the continent.
In comparison, the European Union and the United Kingdom have vaccinated more than 60 percent of their people and high-income countries have administered 48 times more doses per person than low-income nations, according to the WHO.
