South Sudan received the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on March 25

The Ministry of Health says it will commence administering the Covid-19 vaccines tomorrow with health care workers at Juba Teaching Hospital.

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

The Ministry of Health earlier announced it would start rolling the jabs within the Presidency.

President Salva Kiir and his five deputies were to lead the way.

However, in a twist of events, the Director-General for Primary Healthcare revealed that the health care workers are to lead the way of getting the jabs.

Dr. Riak Atem said the decision was reached after realizing the health care workers are at a greater risk of contracting the virus.

“The vaccination is going to kick off on Tuesday, this is the latest information we have,” Dr. Atem said on Sunday during the weekly press briefing on coronavirus.

Dr. Atem disclosed that the vaccines will be administered at four centres in Juba—the State House J1, Juba Teaching Hospital, Giada Military Hospital, and the Police Hospital in Juba.

President Salva Kiir permitted the Ministry of Health and the National Taskforce to go ahead with plans for the official launch of the coronavirus vaccinations after a team of medical doctors made a presentation on the AstraZeneca Vaccine to the president and his cabinet on Tuesday last week.

“Our first target is the healthcare workers as you can see in the report they are at a high risk than the rest of the population. They will be the first target for this vaccination, Dr. Atem added.

He said since the vaccines were received on the 25 of last month, “we were training the vaccinators because this is a new vaccine.”