Dr. Riek Machar gets his first Covid vaccine on April 7, 2021/Courtesy

Nearly 2,000 health care workers and senior government officials have so far received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine across Juba County.

“We have now vaccinated nearly 2,000 people, mainly health workers and now we are moving to the elderly in Juba then to other counties in Central Equatoria,” said Dr. Richard Laku, the Covid-19 Incident Manager.

Health minister Elizabeth Achuei became the first, to be vaccinated at Juba Teaching Hospital while launching the campaign nearly two weeks ago.

Other government officials including First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, President Salva Kiir, and some cabinet members then went on to receive their first doses.

Dr. Richard Laku says the next move is to vaccinate health workers and the elderly in other parts of the country.

“Now we are trying to complete the other five counties of Central Equatoria. Also, the other states are in preparation but in terms of the health workers, we will be moving across the ten states to make sure that all the health workers across the ten states are vaccinated.”

The first doses of the 132,000 AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in South Sudan on March 25.

They are part of the 2.4 million doses South Sudan requested from COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, known as COVAX.