Diana Daibes, the USAID Program Office Director at the U.S. Embassy in Juba and Brendan Dineen, the COVAX Coordinator for WHO South Sudan and UNICEF representatives, receiving the donation at Juba International Airport, December 9 - Credit |USAID/US Embassy in Juba

USAID Program Office Director, Diana Daibes has handed over additional doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to South Sudan.

The 168,000 doses of the single-shot J and J arrived at Juba International Airport Thursday morning.

The vaccine was donated by the United States government via the COVAX facility.

According to the US embassy in Juba, the latest donation of the vaccine is the largest by a single country to South Sudan to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Diana Daibes, the USAID Program Office Director at the U.S. Embassy in Juba spoke to Eye Radio upon the arrival of the vaccines earlier on Thursday.

“We had 168,000 vaccines that were delivered from the United States and this is part of an ongoing effort by the US government to make sure that there is a concerted effort to provide a level of response against the global pandemic,” Daibes said.

“This is the second shipment to South Sudan, we hope that it will help support the people of South Sudan in fighting against the pandemic.”

This second batch brings the number of doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine provided to South Sudan to 320,950.

To date, the United States has shipped more than 280 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to more than 110 countries.