South Sudan is planning to acquire 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines by the end of February 2021 to inoculate the first batch of its population.

The director-general for preventive health services at the Ministry of Health Dr John Rumunu told journalists on Sunday that doses will arrive in Europe ahead of the distribution by the ministry.

“I am happy to inform you that we have met all the requirements and we have received information from COVAX that there are 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which has been allocated to South Sudan and depending on the process South Sudan will be able to receive this consignment latest by end of February,” Rumunu told journalists in Juba.

The country requested the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) to supply AstraZeneca vaccines to aid in the mitigation measures against the spread of the virus. The country has reported 4,355 cases, 3,663 recoveries and 66 deaths since patient zero was detected on April 5, 2020.

Doubts

Nonetheless, the AstraZeneca vaccine has attracted lots of doubts in South Africa after local scientists carried out a study which revealed that the jab would not assure protection over the new variant currently being experienced in the country.

Pretoria had to halt the planned inoculation but later on came with a conviction that the jab would be administered on the trial basis.

South Africa plans to vaccinate the first 100,000 people to see the vaccine would perform on them before making a case for efficacy and mass exercise, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 said.

“We don’t want to vaccinate people with a product which may not prevent hospitalisation or reduce disease,” Abdool Karim told a news conference, as Reuters reports.