Juba, South Sudan,
June 3rd, 2021 — South Sudan’s First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhuron, has received his second COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, June 2nd , 2021 in his office in Juba.
In a statement seen by Nyamilepedia, Dr. Machar received his second dose of the Oxford_AstraZeneca vaccine to complete his two-dose cycle ahead of everyone else.
According to experts, everyone who wishes to protect him/herself from COVID-19 disease must get the two doses of the same kind within four months.
Machar was vaccinated along with Hon. Elizabeth Achuei, the Minister of Health, and other senior officials in the office of the First Vice President.
The same group was the first to be vaccinated in the country when they got their first dose on April 7th, 2021.
According to the press unit of the office of the First Vice President, Dr. Machar reiterated his call on the people of South Sudan to continue adhering to hygiene protocols by wearing face masks, watching hands regularly and observing a social distance at least three feet.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit took his first dose on 13th of April 2021and he is expected to take another does soon.
The first doses of the 132,000 AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in South Sudan on March 25th 2021 but South Sudan did not start vaccination immediately as the young country was still listening and evaluating the pros and cons of getting the vacination.
The vaccine that South Sudan has received is highly criticized due to known side effects that include blood clots, headache, fatigue, muscle or joint pain, fever, chills and nausea.
South Sudan has recently returned more than 54% of the doses they receive, about 72, 000 doses, saying that they may expire before they deploy them and therefore they had to return them to COVAX so that someone else who needs them may use them.
“We don’t want to run the risk of [the drug] expiring here in our hands. It will be accounted for, so we are committing back an amount of 72,000 doses so that they are used by someone who can deploy these doses in one week and then once we finish with our 60,000,” Said Dr. Mayen Machuot, the Under Secretary of the Ministry of Health.
