On 25 March 2021, 132,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Juba International Airport, the first of several vaccine shipments scheduled to arrive over the coming months to South Sudan through the support of the COVAX Facility | Unicef

South Sudan has missed its target to fully vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population against Covid-19. This is according to an official from the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.

The health ministry had put forward the goal last year, but just over 245 thousand people have been vaccinated since the inoculation campaign was rolled out in April last year.

However, an immunization expert now says of those vaccinated, only about 199, 740 people have received full dose—the rest have still to get their second jab.

Dr. Samuel Patti is the immunization specialist for the United Nations Children’s Fund—UNICEF that partners with the Ministry of Health to deliver Covid-19 vaccines across the country.

Since we started in April 2021, we have only managed to reach about 245,000 people who have been vaccinated and about 199, 740 people who have been fully vaccinated”, Samuel told Eye Radio’s Under The Tree Program on Thursday.

“Those who have got two doses of AstraZeneca and at least one dose of Johnson and Johnson. This is only like 3.2% of the total population we targeted to reach so it is very little”, he says.

The number also falls short of World Health Organization’s target for achieving full vaccination of 40 percent in every country by the end of 2021—missed across most of Africa.

The WHO set the goal earlier last year, but only about 9 percent of people on the continent have been fully vaccinated so far.

These low rates of vaccination have been of particular concern following the identification of the Omicron variant and its rapid global spread.

The WHO has set a further target of 70 percent coverage for all countries by June 2022.

As of Saturday, South Sudan’s cumulative tally reads at 16,489 with 136 deaths and 12,934 recoveries since the virus was first confirmed in the country in April 2020.