Dozens of people jammed the doors to the city's healthcare posts even before they opened over the weekend.
People rushed to get in line after the municipal Health Secretariat confirmed the first two cases of the disease in the third most populated state in Brazil, including one patient who died on March 11.
Besides the cases confirmed, regional authorities are investigating another 36 possible cases in Rio de Janeiro, principally in the municipality of Casemiro de Abreu where the first death was recorded.
The soaring demand for the vaccine forced the municipal Health Secretariat to announce that its 34 vaccination posts would open an hour earlier in order to distribute numbered entry tickets for people waiting to be immunised.
The outbreak of yellow fever in Rio sounded forced regional authorities to bring forward to this week the beginning of a vaccination campaign that had originally been scheduled for the end of the month.
The outbreak in Rio was confirmed after the illness had spread rapidly through the neighbouring states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Espirito Santo.
