Rwanda’s ministry of defence on Friday received a consignment of 200,000 AstraZeneca doses from the Greek military.
The consignment was received by Dr Tharcisse Mpunga Minister of State in charge of Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health from Alexandros Diakopoulous, the Director-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid at the Greece Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Also present were high-ranking officials from both the Rwanda Defence Force and the Greek military.
Diakopoulous revealed to journalists at the Kigali International Airport that “This donation is a concrete proof and clear indication of Greece’s willingness to have close cooperation with Rwanda and the Rwandan people, and it’s an indication of our solidarity to Rwanda,”
He pointed out that Rwanda becomes the first African country to receive such a consignment from Greece owing to the current cordial relations between the nations.
“We brought these vaccines while they were other countries geographically closer to us. This is a country very dear to us. We hope that apart from the benefit for the health of the people of Rwanda, this will be a step closer to achieve stronger cooperation between the two countries.”
Greece’s donation comes hours after Rwanda secured some 108,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines from the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).
The country has recently ramped up vaccination efforts in an effort to vaccinate at least 60 per cent of its population by June, next year.
To achieve this, Minister Mpunga said that Rwanda is seeking additional vaccines, particularly to boost the efforts that are currently at 30 per cent.
Mpunga also said that Rwanda currently administers four types of vaccines including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinopharm, and Johnson& Johnson all of which have been approved by the World Health Organisation.