South Sudan’s national health ministry says it expects to receive 48,000 doses of the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccines this month from the global COVAX Facility.

Dr. John Rumunu, the Acting Covid-19 Incident Manager at the ministry of health said, "We have received notification from COVAX Facility of 48,000 doses of AstraZeneca for South Sudan for the month of October. So, we still don’t have the date of arrival, but the number of doses is 48,000."

Dr. Rumunu added that the ministry of health has administered 91 percent of the total 119,520 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines it received since April this year.

“As you all know, we have received two batches of AstraZeneca, in total 119,520 doses. I am happy to report that 91 percent of this has been deployed, and now we have zero doses in the cold chain. We ended the last batch vaccination on the 30th of September and I am very happy to report that no single vial has expired,” Dr. Rumunu noted.

The ministry of health says it has administered AstraZeneca vaccines to 108,685 people so far since the start of vaccinations in April this year.

Dr. Rumunu pointed out that the ministry will begin the deployment and administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine on 8th October 2021. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergency Preparedness Officer in South Sudan Dr. Joseph Wamalla said vaccination is generally low in Africa and needs an additional 470 million doses to reach the December target.

“In terms of vaccination coverage for countries in Africa in relation to the safe target, only 14 countries have been able to reach the 10 percent target by the end of September last month. The 40 percent target that is expected for all countries by the end of this year has only been attained by three countries in Africa which is Mauritius and Morocco, and only one country has reached the 70 percent target which is Seychelles," Dr. Wamala said. "Africa will need an additional 470 million additional doses to reach the December target and that is on top of what the African Union and COVAX have pledged." 

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa will need 930 million doses to ensure full coverage to attain the 40 percent target by the end of the year 2021. 

South Sudan recorded 14 Covid-19 positive cases on Saturday, bringing the cumulative total confirmed cases to 12,035, 11,617 recoveries, and 130 deaths.