Man dies ‘after Covid-19 jab’ in Torit

A man has been reported dead in Torit County, Eastern Equatoria State allegedly after receiving the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.

According to the local authorities of Nyong Payam, Torit County, Achamudang Owaa who is  69 years old died shortly after receiving the jab.

Speaking to The City Review correspondent in Torit, Ben Sidoro Kamiru of  Nyong Payam chief said, “this issue happened. I was not there but I heard a person was vaccinated and he died. He was injected but the reason as to why he died, we don’t know, it is the hospital people to know that.”

He said though people are still responding to the COVID-19 sensitization vaccine after the incident some people were already scared.

“Now people are still coming to receive the vaccine. The rumour that this vaccine kills people is there, people are running away now but the vaccinators are continuing to work and they are still mobilizing the people to accept the vaccination,” Ben said.

When contacted, Dr Santina Ikoki Torit State Acting Medical Director confirmed the incident but said the deceased had underline conditions.

Dr Santina said the late Achamudang Owaa had hypertension among other conditions that she believed contributed to his death.

“That man actually is 69 years old and he has a history of hypertension and is even paralyzed because of that stroke that was causing the paralysis. We find that man had severe anaemia, meaning he has blood haemoglobin of 5.2 which is very small. If he was a life, we could transfuse him then another thing, we find the total white blood cell is high then again from the history,” said Dr Santina explained.

However, the Medical Doctor assured the population of the safety of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

“You see there are a lot of people who have injected from that file of the vaccine, the same vaccine that the deceased got from it, the same vaccine was used for vaccinating other people and these people have nothing, no one complained that he has a headache or something like that. The vaccine cannot kill, it is safe,” he said.

Last week, authorities of the State Ministry of Health launched the Johnson and Johnson vaccine at Hai Lotuko, a residential area in Torit Municipal Council, Torit County of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State.