Sudan receives first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Ministry of Health received the first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. More than 280 active coronavirus cases were recorded in the country yesterday. The Health Ministry plans to vaccinate at least 20 per cent of the population in the near future.

The delivery of the shipment was attended by Undersecretary of the Federal Ministry of Health Yusra Osman, the American Chargé d’Affairs in Sudan, Brian Shawkan, and Mary Louise Eagleton, representative of the UN Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan.

The about half a million doses received, is part of a 1,274,130 Pfizer vaccines donation from the USA through the Kovacs Platform, the undersecretary said in a press conference on Wednesday.

The Pfizer vaccine is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine that reached Sudan, she explained. More than 1,700,000 people in Sudan have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, or Sinapharm.

All requirements to keep and transport the Pfizer vaccine at a temperature of minus 70 to 80 degrees Celsius have been provided. The vaccine will be available at health centres throughout the country next week.

UNICEF representative Mary Louise Eagleton explained that the organisation is working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health and the Kovacs Platform* to install and rehabilitate the super-cooled chains correctly, adding that these five units were successfully tested in the last week of September before operation by experts.

20 per cent to be vaccinated

The Ministry of Health plans to vaccinate at least 20 per cent of the population in the near future. This means that about 8.4 million people out of the total population of 42.3 million will be vaccinated.

In the past six months, Sudan has received more than 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca through various donations facilitated by the Kovacs Platform. The vaccines were delivered with the support of UNICEF support. In addition, the Sudanese government purchased vaccines itself.

The UNICEF Representative, Marie-Louis said that the organisation is working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health and the Kovacs Platform to install the ultra-cold chains required for the Pfizer” vaccines, adding that five units were successfully tested in the last week of September.

COVID-19 cases

The Sudanese Ministry of Health reported this morning that five people died of COVID-19 in Sudan on Thursday, three of them in Khartoum, one El Gezira, and one in North Kordofan.

29 new coronavirus patients were reported, bringing the total number of active cases on 287 – which is 17 more than recorded on Wednesday. Of the new cases, 23 were registered in Khartoum, three in River Nile state, two in Northern State, and one in Res Sea state, all in northern Sudan.

On Wednesday, seven COVID-19 patients died, four in Khartoum, and one each in El Gezira, Rive Nile state, and Northern State.

* The COVAX Platform is a coalition co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), GAVI organisation, the Global Vaccines Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), that ensures equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to countries regardless of their income.