Sudan on Tuesday began vaccinating frontline healthcare workers against coronavirus, after it received its first batch of vaccines last week, reported Africa News. Health care workers at Jabra isolation hospital in Khartoum were the first to get their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Sudan is the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to receive vaccines through the COVAX facility, an UN-led initiative that provides jabs to poor countries, according to a press release from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI, and the WHO, working in partnership with UNICEF, the World Bank, manufacturers and civil society organizations, and others.
“We started Tuesday vaccinating health care workers and other staff in isolation hospitals,” said Al-Taher Abdelrahman of the isolation centers department at the health ministry.
He added that those who received the first dose on Tuesday will be receiving another dose after a month.
The first batch of vaccines comprised 828,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which are planned to cover 414,000 frontline health care workers across the country. The first phase will cover 3.5 percent of the country’s population.
Sudan has secured a total of 3.4 million doses through COVAX, which are likely to arrive in batches through to the end of September. The country’s health ministry aims to cover 20 percent of its population by September.
Last week, during a press conference, Sudan’s health minister Omar al-Naguib said the vaccine will be available for free with frontline medics and the elderly being priority groups.
Coronavirus has so far infected over 28,500 people in Sudan and killed more than 1,900, according to official data.
The country is going through a rocky political transition following the April 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir. The coronavirus pandemic has piled pressure on a country already suffering deep economic woes, including galloping inflation and chronic hard currency shortages.
