By Simon Deng
South Sudan received 93,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson covid-19 vaccines donated by France on Thursday, according to Brenda Dineen, the World Health Organization’s COVAX Coordinator.
“We have today received 93,000 doses of Covid-19 Johnson and Johnson vaccines, the vaccines were received by the national ministry of health and the French Ambassador to South Sudan and the vaccines have been taken to the central medical drug store,” said Dineen.
The chief health agency, the world health organization announced that South Sudan will have a boost in its COVID-19 vaccine import reaching a million doses by January despite a low intake over the last eight months.
Dineen revealed that the vaccination program has reach all the 10 states and in about 70 counties and also present in over 240 health facilities with additional mobile outreaches across the country.
Since the vaccines including the double shots Oxford AstraZeneca and the single dose Johnson and Johnson were imported this year, less than 200,000 people from a country of 12 million have got their doses against the pandemic.
The vaccines used in South Sudan are mainly from the Global Access Initiative (COVAX), and the government of the United States of America.
According to UN figures, besides the emerging variant including Omicron, about 67 percent of people in high-income countries have had at least one vaccine dose — but not even 10 percent in low-income countries.
