South Sudan’s floods, insecurity disrupts COVID-19 deliveries in Bor

JUBA – The delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to South  Sudan‘s restive state of Jonglei has been disrupted by floods and insecurity, said Mohammed Malick Fall, visiting UN Children’s Fund Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Region.

Addressing journalists in Juba on Friday, Mohammed said floods in Jonglei state and other parts of the country is another blow for supply chains.

“The vaccine arrives up to a level of Bor but sometimes going out of Bor and reaching some of the villages become a challenge for the reason that are linked to security and flooding,” Mohammed told reporters at Friday’s press conference in Juba.

Mohammed said the UN Children’s Fund is doing to ensure timely deliveries of CIVID-19 vaccines to hot reach areas.

“In areas where we have direct responsibility as partners, we are doing our level best to make sure that the supply of COVID-19 vaccines is delivered on time,” he said.

The UN official reaffirmed UNICEF’s readiness to continue assisting the government to deliver the vaccines to various states.

“We facilitate a lot of access to vaccines but the government and other partners also have the responsibility but this requires us to step up our efforts and our support to the government in operational cost and now,” he said.

“You know to get the vaccines on people’s arms, you just don’t need to be transported by plane and arrive in the main airport of the country but you need the vaccine to also reach the last miles where it needs to be taken,” he added.

South Sudan has administered more than 218,154 doses of COVID vaccines so far.