AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine stuck in stores in South SudanThe AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine is still in medical stores in South Sudan, a week after its arrival in the country. South Sudan received the first batch of its 132,000 doses of AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine from COVAX facility last Thursday and another 60,000 doses donated by African Union (AU) through African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on Friday last week. A total of 192,000 doses of covid-19 vaccine is in the country.
However, the launch of the vaccination campaign is delayed.Doctors at Juba Teaching Hospital who talked to Juba Echo did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media but said they were told that the vaccination would begin soon however, they were not aware when the exercise will start.South Sudan’s presidency and senior government officials were set to receive the first jabs of the covid-19 vaccine on Monday this week, that didn’t happen.
On Tuesday the country’s health ministry briefed the presidency and other senior government officials on how the vaccine will be administered. It was expected that after the briefing the vaccine would begin.The covid-19 vaccination exercise for frontline health workers was also expected to begin in three centres in Juba on Wednesday but this is yet to happen.
In a telephone interview with Juba Echo on Tuesday evening, South Sudan’s covid-19 incident manager Dr. Richard Laku confirmed via a phone call that the vaccine Launch for frontline health workers would begin on Wednesday.“There will be vaccination for the health workers in Juba Teaching Hospital, police hospital and military hospitals but regarding J-1, I have nothing to say for now because the last meeting today (Tuesday) happened in the morning and I was not there, so I don’t have information on that.”South Sudan’s health ministry says it plans to give vaccines to priority groups such as health workers, elderly people of 65 years and above, those with underlying health conditions and teachers.“Health workers will start their vaccination from tomorrow (Wednesday) they will have no problem because the vaccinators are there, the facilities are there.
These are the first group we need to vaccinate.” Incident Manager Dr. Richard Laku narrated.About 60 trained health workers are expected to administer the vaccines at 18 medical centres in Juba according to the ministry of health. The ministry also says it plans to deploy 245 trained health workers across South Sudan to administer the vaccine in all the 10 states and the administrative areas.
