March 31, 2021(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan president Salva Kiir on Tuesday approved the use of AstraZeneca vaccine to protect South Sudanese against COVID-19.
President Kiir acknowledged the existence of COVID-19 pandemic in the country and urged members of the public to accept the vaccine and go for it.
“We are here for a very important topic. We have to accept the presence of coronavirus with us in South Sudan, and you have seen it has taken our very important people, my condolences to those who lost their loved ones.” President Kiir said.
“As you have heard, what was said by one of our colleagues is that let us accept the vaccine then we go in for it,” President Kiir continued.
The president said this after a team of medical doctors made a presentation on AstraZeneca Vaccine to President Kiir and Members of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity yesterday.
Kiir instructed the Ministry of health and the national taskforce to continue with their plans to officially launch the mass vaccination against Covid-19 to help protect the people of South Sudan.
According to Dr. Richard Laku, the Covid-19 incident manager, the Covid-19 vaccination exercise is expected to start with frontline health workers is expected to begin in Juba in three centers, Juba Teaching Hospital, Buluk Police Medical Hospital, and Al Giada Military Hospital.
This is part of the government plan to roll out vaccines to priority groups such as the health workers, the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, teachers, etc.
“I know the plans as we told you the other day. They will be doing vaccination for the health workers in Juba Teaching Hospital, police hospital, and military hospitals, but regarding J1 (state house), because when the last meeting today (Tuesday) in the morning happened, I was not there, so I don’t have information on that,” Dr. Laku said.
“Health workers will start their vaccination on Wednesday and they will have no problem because the vaccinators are there, the facilities are there. This is the first group we need to vaccinate,” he added.
South Sudan has so far received 732,000 doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca, free of charge from Covax facility to vaccinate more than 2 million South Sudanese.
