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

The United States has commended South Sudan for securing the first dose of the coronavirus vaccines that arrived in the country on Thursday.

The AstraZeneca vaccines were delivered into the country through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment.

It is a global initiative to support equitable access to coronavirus vaccines.

About 132,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines landed at Juba International Airport.

They are part of the 2.4 million doses that South Sudan requested from COVAX.

The government said the first beneficiaries will be frontline health workers and elderly persons, mainly those above 60.

It will also be given to people with underlying conditions such as cancer, asthma, and heart disease, among others.

In a statement issued, the U.S. embassy in Juba congratulated South Sudan on the successful start of the coronavirus vaccine campaign.

It said, the U.S. government, through USAID and the Centre for Disease Control has provided nearly 48 million dollars in assistance for the coronavirus response in South Sudan.

These funds, it added, are supporting humanitarian assistance, expanding the training of health workers, and strengthening health facilities’ and communities’ capabilities to manage coronavirus cases.

The embassy further said the CDC provided approximately $11 million in funding toward emergency preparedness and response efforts, laboratory testing, contact tracing, and home-based care.

The funds were also directed at data management, vaccine monitoring and evaluation and human resource capacity building.

The United States expressed its continued commitment to work as a partner to South Sudan and the global community to address the challenge of coronavirus.