This archive report was first published on 9 May 2020.
South Sudan is facing a surge in Covid-19 cases, with 30 new cases recorded on Friday, bringing the total to 120. The country's President Salva Kiir has been criticised for relaxing some Covid-19 restrictions, despite the rising number of cases.
On Thursday, President Kiir issued a statement permitting businesses such as bars, restaurants, and boda bodas to reopen, and reducing the curfew time from 7pm to 6am to 10pm to 6am.
However, the South Sudan Doctors' Union has expressed concerns that the move was made at the wrong time and may hurt millions of South Sudanese. The union believes that easing restrictions would encourage the transmission of the virus to areas where health professionals are not trained and where facilities are not available to quarantine positive cases.
Dr. Thuou Loi, the national health ministry's spokesman, has also expressed concerns that the country will have a full-blown Covid-19 outbreak, given the disconnect between the technical team and the High-Level Taskforce on coronavirus.
Dr. Loi advised that there is a need to continue restrictions, continue testing people leaving outside Juba and those coming into the country from Covid-19 affected countries, to prevent the importation of more coronavirus cases.
For his part, Jame Kolok, the executive director for Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance, described the move as a political one made by politicians without consultations from health experts.
He warned that if the country continues to make reckless decisions, it will not be a surprise that South Sudan becomes the highest in the region in terms of Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, a new study by the World Health Organisation predicts that between 83,000 to 190,000 people in Africa could die of Covid-19 and 29 million to 44 million could get infected in the first year of the pandemic if containment measures fail.
