The Northern Bahr el Ghazal State government in collaboration with health partners has launched a Covid-19 vaccination campaign targeting the counties in the state, an official said.
John Agany Deng, the state’s Covid-19 coordinator, revealed that the health ministry launched phase 3 of the Covid-19 vaccination program earlier this month and that 142,234 people have already been vaccinated state-wide.
He said the available Covid-19 vaccines in the state will last five months and that they had sufficient stocks of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.
“Yes, the phase 3 for Covid-19 vaccination has started in the counties because phases 1 and 2 were conducted at the headquarters of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Aweil,” Agany said. “Right now we are have been able to extend phase 3 to the county level, especially for Johnson & Johnson vaccines and the activities started two weeks ago and the vaccination is going well in the five counties.”
The Aweil East County commissioner, Kiir Yor Lual, said there are seven centers for vaccination in addition to mobile teams that move through residential areas to ensure that the people of Aweil East get vaccinated at no cost.
“There are seven centers in addition to mobile teams that move from one location to another depending on population concentration,” Commissioner Yor said. “We have seven operating centers. We vaccinated a large number of people last week.”
For his part, Luka Thel Thel, the Aweil South County commissioner, said the Covid-19 vaccination campaign was ongoing at the county hospital.
“The vaccination started at the county hospitals and people are turning out in big numbers to receive their jabs because we explained to them that Covid-19 is a most dangerous disease and needs people to protect themselves by washing their hands, using face masks, and taking the vaccine.’’
142,234 people have been vaccinated according to the state ministry of health statistics.