UN staff member tests positive for Coronavirus disease COVID-19 in South Sudan, becoming the Country’s first case
South Sudan becomes the latest East African country to confirm Coronavirus COVID-19 case. The announcement was made on Sunday 5th, April 2020, by the government and United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) officials.
The United Nation Mission in South Sudan Chief, David Shearer says the first Coronavirus case is a UN staff member who has been in South Sudan for about 5 months, and now government and UN are tracing the victim’s contacts
“We need to check where that person has been, people she has come into contact with.”
Two weeks ago, UNIMISS quarantined 150 individuals who landed Juba International Airport with the last flights before its closure. According to Shearer many of them showed no symptoms of the virus, however, some are still in isolation.
Shearer says if South Sudanese fail to comply with the preventive measures in place, the situation could get worse.
World Health Organization (WHO) Representative, Olushayo Olu, asked South Sudanese to practice Social Distancing and frequent hand washing to prevent the spread of the virus.
“There are two to three ways you can contract the disease. It has a droplet in the air so you can actually breathe it but importantly it can also rest on surfaces. So as we move forward, as we try to the social distance among ourselves let us also make sure that we don’t touch unnecessary surfaces,” Olu said.
“Let us also ensure that when we touch surfaces and our hands are not cleaned do not touch our face. So, I think the message is hand washing,” he added.
South Sudan closed its borders and Juba International Airport on March 23, 2020, including bars, night clubs and shops, apart from food markets.
And now as a result of the confirmed COVI-19 case, the Vice President and Deputy Chair of the High-Level Taskforce on COVID-19, Riek Machar announced a night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am.
He also said more preventative measures may be taken to curb further spread of the disease.
Machar adds that officials will monitor the situation of the confirmed case, and called upon the public to strictly follow the guidelines to stop further spread.
The confirmed case presented symptoms including a fever, cough, headache and shortness of breath at a UN Clinic on April 2.
An initial test for COVID-19 came back positive.
“The Ministry of Health is leading a full investigation with the World Health Organization and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention including identifying and following up all the possible contacts and the next steps,” Machar said.
In a related story, Libya’s former Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jebril has succumbed to COVID-19, according to a statement released by his political party.
Jebril aged 67 contracted the deadly virus in Egypt in late March and died at a hospital in Cairo. He was in power as head of the National Transitional Council during months of civil war in 2011 which led to the ouster of former long-term ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Also, Indonesia has issued a guideline mandating every person to wear a face mask when outside starting Sunday 5, April 2020. This followed the rising cases, many deaths in the country and its capability to handle an outbreak.
Indonesia has about 2,300 cases, 200 COVID-19 related deaths. These are officially reported figures and the true figure is still unknown.
