As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the lives and rights of refugees, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has welcomed the Rwandan government’s vaccination last week of 416 refugees – one of the first countries in Africa to do so.
Nearly one year since the country’s first registered COVID-19 case and as part of Rwanda’s national vaccination drive, the Rwandan Ministry of Health inoculated 224 refugees residing in the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) centre in Gashora and 192 refugees in six refugee settlements working on the front lines of the pandemic as community health workers and cleaners or security guards at health clinics in the refugee settlements.
UNHCR said in a statement that some 230,000 people in Rwanda have been vaccinated against COVID-19, one week after a countrywide campaign began.
“We commend Rwanda’s inclusion of refugees in its response to the pandemic,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UNHCR’s Regional Bureau Director Bureau for the East,…
Source: News Agency of Nigeria
