Vaccine rollout has begun in South Sudan at a hospital in the capital, Juba, where health workers were among the first to receive the jab.

A total of 132,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses were received last month through the global vaccine alliance Covax, but health authorities blamed "logistical constraints" for delaying rollout by a week.

"The vaccine actually is not the way it sounds – it is very normal, even the injection of malaria is more painful," said Health Minister Elizabeth Achuei Yol after receiving her vaccine on Tuesday, adding:

Quote Message: We have lost very important members of our society, dear relatives because of Covid-19. So please don’t miss this chance - grab it and take it. Don’t waste your time out there because of what you hear from lay people."
We have lost very important members of our society, dear relatives because of Covid-19. So please don’t miss this chance - grab it and take it. Don’t waste your time out there because of what you hear from lay people."

Rollout began at a medical teaching facility in Juba, that also houses a military referral hospital.

Defence Minister Angelina Teny said some senior military staff had already had their jabs a week earlier and urged other soldiers to do the same, adding:

"If this vaccine had been there early on, I think many lives would have been saved."