The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have revealed that the country will receive another shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine tomorrow.

“On Tuesday we will be receiving another 168,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, ” Dr. Brendan Dineen, South Sudan World Health Organisation Co-coordinator has confirmed.

He was addressing journalists during the COVID-19 weekly press briefing on Sunday at the Emergency Operation Centre in Juba.

 “We know that some of those facilities have already run out of their J & J [but] with vaccines arriving on Tuesday, we will supply more across the country,” Dineen said.

WHO said they have distributed vaccines to more than 224 facilities across the country. These include all the 10 states’ three administrative areas. It added that 66 of the 80 countries have received the vaccine and that the remaining 14 countries are experiencing floods or have logistical difficulties.

“If that changes in January or February, we will see vaccines being made available and, therefore, access will increase and vaccinations will take place in those locations,” he assured.

Good progress

Dr. Dineen added that 90 per cent of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been administered and the 10 per cent is still being administered.

Almost 60 per cent of health care workers in South Sudan have been fully vaccinated, a number which is better when compared to other  African countries.

So far, 139,364 people have been fully vaccinated: 33,006 with two doses of the AZ vaccine and 106,358 with a single dose of the J & J vaccine.

The priority now remains to provide the second dose of the AZ vaccine to the 51,833 people who have received their first dose.

The current COVID-19 status in the country shows the cumulative number of tests performed up to December 5 is 271,262 since COVID-19 was confirmed in the country. The number of cases recovered is 12,463, the cumulative number of cases confirmed is 12,823, and the death cases are 133.