The World Health Organisation (WHO) in April expressed concerns about the Covid-19 epidemic's impact on routine immunisation programmes for children, as they cited that 21 low and middle income countries were already reporting vaccine shortages due to travel disruptions and border closures.

Every month, about 30,000 doses for each type of vaccine are administered by the health ministry for the routine immunisation exercise.

According to Sibomana, the impact of Covid-19 on the vaccination exercise has been insignificant, since the cumulative vaccination coverage recorded from January to April has been slightly over 90 per cent for each vaccine.

On the other hand, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination exercise for the first dose was scheduled for the months of April and May using the school based approach but was disrupted by the schools' closure due to the pandemic.

Through Gavi, the Vaccine Allinace's Partnership, Rwanda has been able to achieve and sustain vaccination coverage of 93 per cent for the most common infectious vaccine preventable diseases.