These vaccines arrived at Kigali International Airport on the evening of Thursday 2nd September 2021 onboard Brussels Airlines.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccines manufactured from the United States of America (USA) are an addition to three more types of COVID-19 jabs which Rwanda has been administering. These include AstraZeneca from India, Pfizer from USA and Sinopharm from China.

Vaccines received today are part of 2,191,000 similar vaccines that Rwanda purchased through African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), an initiative by African leaders to spearhead fair and equitable distribution of vaccines on the continent.

The Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana who received the first consignment of Johnson & Johnson vaccines explained that they are distributed through an initiative of the African Union.

Officials revealed recently that Rwanda has been receiving at least 230,000 vaccine doses per week administered to various recipients countrywide.

Rwanda has scaled up vaccination efforts starting with Kigali City where at least 80% of dwellers aged 18 and above have received the first vaccine shot.

Dr. Nsanzimana has explained that received Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be rolled out to districts with high COVID-19 positivity rate.

The first consignment of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines has arrived in Rwanda.