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South Sudan receives over 150,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX

15 September 2021 20:42 (UTC +04:00)

South Sudan on Tuesday received 152,950 doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility, APA reports citing Xinhua.

These single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are the third batch of vaccine shipments to South Sudan through the COVAX facility.

Elizabeth Achuei, South Sudan's Minister of Health said the vaccines will ramp up the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination program to prevent COVID-19 in individuals aged 18 years and above.

The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines were shipped through the COVAX facility to South Sudan on March 25 and the second batch of 59,520 AstraZeneca vaccines donated by France arrived on Aug. 31 and a donation from Sweden is slated for arrival soon.

Jesper Moller, UNICEF Deputy Representative said the J&J vaccines will offer an important contribution in the rollout of COVID vaccines by the convenience of a one-shot dose.

The latest vaccine arrival means that South Sudan has now received a total of 271,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses that are for providing protection against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 76,207 South Sudanese have received their first dose while 17,588 persons have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine as of Sept. 12.