South Sudan to run out of coronavirus vaccines in days

JUBA – South Sudan government has announced that it is running out of coronavirus vaccines in days with only about 1,800 AstraZeneca doses, evacuated from states where turn out for vaccination is low, left.

Angelo Goup Thon Kouch, the Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Ministry of Health and Chief of Operations for COVID-19 in the PHEOC told reporters during a routine weekly coronavirus briefing on COVID-19 at Emergency Operation Center (EOP) in Juba that the country is left with few doses.

“About vaccines availability at the moment, we have remained with very few doses; we have remained with 1820 doses. These doses are now available in three main hospitals, Juba Teaching Hospital, Juba Military Hospital, and Juba Police Hospital,” Goup told reporters in Juba on Sunday.

Goup reassured the public the vaccine will be used before expiry on 18 July.

“These doses will finish before 18 July; they were evacuated from other locations where there is a low intake of vaccines back to Juba,” Goup said.

James Chan Jok, Rapid Response Team Coordinator disclosed that the country plans

In March, the country received 132,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Covax facility and another consignment of 59,000 doses from the African Union (AU) and South African telecom giant, MTN.

But the 59,000 doses donated by the AU could not be used as they expired on 13 April before the country could start a vaccine rollout.

Also, the African youngest nation donated 72,000 doses to Kenya after concluding it cannot administer the jabs before they expire on 18th July.

South Sudan has so far reported 10,907 infections and 117 deaths.