JUST IN: Kiir vaccinated against COVID-19

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has on Tuesday received his first jab of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The president received the jab at his residence, and a photo of him receiving the vaccine was shared in order to encourage citizens to get the shot.

Last week, First Vice-President Riek Machar got his jab of AstraZeneca vaccine after the Minister of Health, Elizabeth Achuei got her first jab a day earlier.

Front-line health care workers at Juba Teaching Hospital, Giada Military Hospital, the State House J1, and the Police Hospital in Juba also got the injections.

Some senior military staff and government officials had already had their jabs a week earlier.

South Sudan on March 25 received 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility – meant to ensure equitable global access to vaccines – and over 59,000 doses from the African Union, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and MTN Group on March 29.

They are part of the 2.4 million doses South Sudan requested from COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, known as COVAX.