It was pomp and colour blended with red-carpet treatment when the COVAX Facility-sponsored AstraZeneca vaccines landed in the country on March 25.
High-ranking government officials led by the health minister Elizabeth Achuei graced the occasion as they witnessed the offloading of the cargo containing 132,000 doses, 132,500 syringes and 1,325 safety boxes.
“The COVID-19 vaccine will help us to protect our population against COVID-19 infections and prepare for a return to a normal life,” Achuei said, as she addressed the press alongside health sector partners and government officials.
The country’s clamour to grasp the vaccine had hit a miss on Monday after a consignment sponsored by CDC Africa, MTN and African Development Bank had failed to arrive in the country on time. A health official who spoke to The City Review anonymously attributed the hitch to logistical missus.
But with the first batch in the bag, South Sudan had no reservations but to begin the inoculation exercise soon.
At the Juba International Airport, assurances were made by GAVI Senior Country Manager for South Sudan Patience Musanhu and UNICEF South Sudan Representative Hamida Lasseko where they emphasised on the vaccine safety and need to race against time.
“These vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they will be an important tool in the fight against this disease.” Musanhu explained.
Trust wanes?
By Sunday, March 29, COVID-19 Incident Manager Dr Richard Lako informed the media of planned launch at the State House to give way for injections. Dr Lako revealed that an unnamed personality within the presidency axis would take the jab for precedence.
“The launching will be in J1 and we hope of course to see that the leadership will show an example and we don’t have names yet but we will start vaccinating from there.
“J1 is just for starting and the [kick off] for the rest of the vaccination [exercises] will start on Tuesday 30th March,’’ he said.
But on Monday this never happened. The launch was suspended indefinitely and there was no reason attached to it. Though the Director-General for Preventive Health Services at the Ministry of Health Dr. John Rumunu—whose docket bears heaviest responsibility in controlling the disease—told a local media house the logistical hitches inspired the suspension.
There was no clear explanation whether the country had rolled out all the prerequisite logistical preparations prior to the importation of the jab.
President Salva Kiir summoned government officials for a day-long presentation at the State House as the ministry of health was put to task to explain the particulars of the AstraZeneca jab.
“We have to accept the presence of coronavirus with us in South Sudan. And you have seen [how] it has taken our very important people…let us accept the vaccine then we go in for it,” President Kiir urged the government officials at the meeting.
Process now on
The president was bold and convinced that the vaccine was the way forward. But a statement from the State House disseminated via the South Sudan Government Twitter handle relayed a perhaps different script.
The statement read: “A team of medical doctors and professionals from the Ministry of Health made a presentation of coronavirus vaccine Oxford-AstraZeneca to President Salva Kiir and members of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity on why this vaccine became the choice for South Sudan.
President Salva Kiir accepted the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for South Sudan and urged 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.’’
In president’s late endorsement came an underlying probability of hitches in conducting due diligence before the importation of the doses. For instance, it evoked pertinent questions on why the ministry of health imported the vaccine without furnishing the presidency with all the details, leading to a late standoff.
Another question that emerged was the possible improper coordination in the importation of the doses. For example, Dr Romunu and Dr Lako, who had been known to be the mouthpiece of the process, now played second fiddle.
Frontline workers who were supposed to get preference in the vaccination process were now side-lined, as the National Taskforce, flooded by politicians who know little on health matters, took over.
Lako was quoted by Radio Tamazuj confirming that vaccination would start in adherence with presidential order on Wednesday March 30, but could not confirm which member of the presidency takes the first injection as earlier planned.
AstraZeneca had attracted controversy when Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands Norway, Denmark and Bulgaria suspended its administration over blood clot concerns last month. Last week Germany became the latest to axe the use of the jab for under 60-year-olds citing fresh brain blood clot fears.
But World Health Organization (WHO) has maintained that the vaccine outweighs the fears in its advocacy to have African countries embrace it.
South Sudan has a total of 192,000 doses of the vaccine to be shared by frontline health workers, security officers, those above 60 years old and those with vulnerabilities. The country expects to use 732,000 doses in the first six months of the exercise.