The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday received 250,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine donated through the global Covax programme.

It is the first time the country has received another vaccine than AstraZeneca.

President Felix Tshisekedi himself was reluctant to take the AstraZeneca jab and promised to take a different one when they were available in the country.

This first batch of 250.000 doses of the Moderna vaccine is part of the six million different vaccines that the Central African country has been waiting for since last July.

Since the launch of the immunisation campaign against Covid-19 on 19 April, less than 100,000 received the jabs.

DR Congo is one of the countries where vaccine reluctance is high.

More than 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines had to be disposed of when they expired last June and July.