By Denis Ejulu
South Sudan said on Friday that it is expecting to receive 100,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from the Chinese government to help in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Deng Dau Deng, Deputy Foreign Minister revealed that the Chinese government has already approved the delivery of the vaccines to South Sudan which exhausted it’s AstraZeneca vaccines in July.
“China has donated 100,000 doses of Sinopharm and the process of transporting them to South Sudan is underway between our ministry of health and that of China,” Deng told The Juba Echo in Juba.
Deng disclosed South Sudan’s ministry of health is finalizing all procedures required to deliver the vaccines to the country.
“As soon as the ministry of health, department of extended program and immunization complete all the procedures, then the doses will be transported to South Sudan,” he said.
“China has already approved the doses but is our department of immunization which is checking on the doses to determine their expiry date before the vaccine can be transported to the country,” he added.
He said that these vaccines when they arrive in Juba will help the ministry of health resume vaccination against COVID-19.
South Sudan has vaccinated 56,989 people since the country launched its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 on April 6 after receiving 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility on March 25th this year.
The World Health Organization ( WHO) in May this year, issued interim recommendations for the use of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine BIBP developed by Sinopharm/China National Pharmaceutical Group.
