The First Vice President Dr Riek Machar was on Wednesday vaccinated against COVID-19 in Juba.

The Deputy Press Secretary in his office Gordon Yien revealed that he (Dr Machar) led a group of officers in his office in receiving the jab.

The statement from his office read partly: ”Today, the office of the FVP would like to seize the opportunity to inform the general public and the entire people of S. Sudan, that H. E Dr Machar the FVP has received COVID-19 jab on Wednesday 7, April 2021. This happened after the office contacted the ministry of health to receive the vaccination at the office.’’

Other senior government officials who were inoculated include the minister of power electricity Peter Marshello, the Executive Director, Major Gen Martin Abucha and among other junior officers, the statement said.

Dr Machar recovered after testing positive for the virus last year. Yesterday, health minister Elizabeth Achuei joined the frontline health workers in Juba Teaching Hospital in receiving the vaccine.

The vaccination exercise was launched on Tuesday after President Salva Kiir directed the National Taskforce on COVID-19 to roll out the vaccination exercise.

Also, the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs AngelinaTeny had flagged off a similar exercise at Juba Military Hospital to allow the military officers to get vaccinated. Three centres have been established in Juba to vaccinate the frontline health workers, the police and military officers and citizens aged above 65 years.

The centres include Juba Training Hospital, Military hospital and another centre for the police.

South Sudan received 132,000 doses of the Astra vaccine from the COVAX facility on March 27 for the first phase of the inoculation.