South Sudan AstraZeneca vaccine arrival adjourned

A scheduled arrival of the first batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to South Sudan has been adjourned to a later date.   

South Sudan Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed earlier that the first shipment of over 190,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine was set for Monday, March 22, 2021.

However, an official familiar with the development told City Review that the vaccine could arrive in the country on Tuesday instead.

“We have not yet received an official communication concerning the arrival of the vaccine. If there was anything positive to that effect, we would have received communication.

“Most probably, the vaccine could arrive on Tuesday,” Dr. Richard Lako, COVID-19 Incident Manager told City Review by phone on Monday.

On Sunday, authorities revealed that the government was on the verge of securing doses of the controversial vaccine as they weigh plans to kick-start vaccination.

The first batch were to be delivered with the facilitation of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, MTN, and the African Development Bank on Monday before the plan flopped.

The government is also securing additional doses of AstraZeneca from the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) according to Dr. Lako.

 “The good news is that we have received a communication from GAVI from the COVAX group that the first shipment of the doses to South Sudan will be in the country by Thursday, March 25.

“That will amount to 132,000 doses that will come as the first shift dose of 3 percent of the 20 percent that the country is supposed to get,” Dr. Richard Lako, COVID-19 Incident Manager said.

He explained that the deployment plan for the vaccine in the country was submitted and was supposed to cover 2.4 million doses to be brought in two shifts.

“Phase one is 3 percent of the 20 percent, which amounts to 864,000 indicative doses and now we got communication from them [COVAX] that they will be getting 732,000 doses instead of the 864, 000,” he said.

 “There will be a gap of 15 percent from what was proposed and this is related to some of the challenges in production rate, high demands, shortages and issues of availability of vaccines,’’ he clarified.

Lako emphasised the country would be getting the 132,000 on Thursday and then followed by 600,000 doses that would be in the country within six months.

He said the Ministry of Health in collaboration with partners had deployed plans to cover the whole country.

“Three percent is supposed to cover the frontline health workers as the first priority followed by those who are above 65 years old then followed by teachers and those other groups,” he explained.

“The plan that am talking about has highlighted the number of centres that we will be doing, and the approach is that we will be doing vaccinations through fixed centres.  We will also be having outreach or mobile kind of terms,” Lako said.  

He added that plans were underway to use mobile means to reach those who are above 65 years who are unable to reach some of the centres. The team aims at covering 16 payams in Juba County in the plan.

He added that they ‘are also working with partners in the states to ensure they go in phases to cover 20 percent of the population base.

 “[At] the national level, there is a technical team that has been established to ensure that the vaccines reach the country and [are] deployed accordingly,” he said. 

 The doctor also revealed that the African Union, MTN, and Africa CDC would be deploying 59,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in the nation on Monday, March 22.

The PEOC deputy manager Angelo Goup Thon however challenged the public to remain steadfast in observing COVID-19 safety protocols.

“The vaccine does not mean that people should relax. [They should] just continue following the measures by wearing masks and the other measures,” he said.

As of Saturday evening, South Sudan had 9,879 confirmed cases, 106 deaths, and 8,779 recoveries since the country confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in May 2020.

[Additional reporting by Charles Lotara]