Malta to send 135,000 COVID vaccines to Rwanda

The Government of Malta has committed itself to donate more than 130,000 vaccine doses to the Government of Rwanda, while it continues to show solidarity with countries in need. A special Air Malta direct flight to Kigali, Rwanda, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, is expected to leave Malta at 2am Friday 15 October.

In line with the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs’ Strategy for Africa, in recent months, Malta has begun a campaign of donating tens of thousands of vaccine doses to countries who have been struggling to obtain enough of them.

Thus far, this vaccination sharing campaign has involved donations from Malta to Libya and Egypt, with additional donations expected to be finalised in the coming weeks and months.

The vaccination-sharing effort has been jointly led by officials from the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and the Ministry for Health, working closely with the Civil Protection Department. Collectively almost 200,000 vaccine doses have been donated so far.

One of the ongoing realities of the COVID-19 pandemic is that, access to vaccines aiming to reduce its impact, continues to be unequal.