COVID-19 vaccination launched in South Sudan

Vaccination campaign against COVID-19 was launched at Juba Teaching Hospital on Tuesday.

The South Sudan’s Health Minister, Elizabeth Achuei was the first to take the jab at the Juba’s referral hospital.

The Minister said the vaccine is safe and called on health care workers to take the inoculation.

“I’m here to tell you that we are more than ready to take the vaccine, this vaccine is very important for our health workers who are in the frontline in fighting COVID-19.” Said Elizabeth

“I was so worried because South Sudan is a young country, I was asking myself that, what will I do if every country got vaccine and we as a country could not get it, thanks to our partners in the health sector for availing this vaccine for South Sudan.” Continued the minister.

The World Health Organization says the vaccine presents hope that COVID-19 can be defeated.

“This is an important addition tool to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to assure you that these vaccines have been prescribed globally and we are continuing to prescribe them, to advocate them so that all the priority population can have the vaccine.” Said WHO country representative in South Sudan, Dr Fabian Ndenzako

The vaccination also commenced at Juba Military Hospital (Giada) where medical personnel at the hospital started getting the jab.

South Sudan received 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility on Thursday, 25^thMarch 2021.

It also received another over 59,000 doses from African Union, Africa CDC and MTN on Monday, 29^th March 2021 bringing the total vaccine in the country to over 190,000.

The World Health Organisation has recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine because it considers that the benefits outweigh its risks which include rare blood coagulation disorders in persons who had received the vaccine.