South Sudan will be getting the vaccines by the end of February. Credit|Gareth Fuller/ Reuters

South Sudan will receive its first doses of covid-19 vaccines by the end of this month, the country’s ministry of health has disclosed.

The announcement came two days after COVAX facility released an update on the distribution of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines to some African countries, including South Sudan.

“We have made all the requirements and we have received information from COVAX that there are 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines which have been allocated for South Sudan,” Dr John Rumunu, the director-general for Preventive Health Services at the ministry of health confirmed.

Dr Rumunu said the ministry of health, WHO and as well as COVAX, will today hold a meeting on the process of bringing the vaccines and their safety.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Health had applied for coronavirus vaccines in January this year to protect citizens from the pandemic.

According to Dr Rumunu, priority is given to health workers, people with underlying health conditions and HIV and AIDS patients, among others.

On Saturday, South Africa suspended plans to vaccinate its front-line health care workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine after a new study showed that the vaccine does not appear to provide protection against mild and moderate disease caused by the coronavirus variant.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine appeared effective against the original strain, but not against the variant,” the country’s health minister Zweli Mkhize said Sunday night.

South Africa and Britain have been battling a mutation of the virus which officials say is more contagious and more destructive.

But South Sudan said it will receive it doses this month.

“Depending on the process, South Sudan will be getting the vaccines by the end of February,” Dr Rumunu told the press in Juba on Sunday.

On Sunday, South Sudan Public Health Laboratory confirmed 57 new coronavirus cases, including four in critical condition.

Those tested positive were out of 578 samples collected over the weekend, bringing the total cumulative number of cases to 4,492.