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South Sudan confirms second COVID-19 case

Thursday, April 9th, 2020 11:53 | By
South Sudanese health workers are seen at the Juba International Airport in Juba, capital of South Sudan, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Denis Elamu)

South Sudan Ministry of Health on Tuesday evening confirmed the second case of coronavirus, bringing the total number to two.
   

Angok Gordon Kuol, the incident manager in the Ministry of Health in South Sudan said the patient is a 53-year-old female employee of the United Nations who traveled to Juba from Nairobi, Kenya in March.
   

"On Monday, we had an alert from UN Level One Clinic, our rapid response team went to investigate and found out that the person was having cough, shortness in breathing, fever, including the running nose. Samples were taken and her case met the case definition of COVID-19," Kuol told Xinhua in Juba.
   

Kuol added that the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the high-level task-force is investigating four additional suspected cases of the pandemic in the country.
   

He reiterated that the country's high-level task-force on COVID-19 has scaled up mitigation measures against the viral respiratory disease.
   

"We have tested contacts of the first case, about 15 of them while 19 have not yet given samples and all will be tested to establish whether they are positive or not," said Kuol.
   

The first patient is also female UN staff, 29, who arrived from the Netherlands via Addis Ababa on Feb. 28.
   

He said the second case contacts will be traced with immediate effect, noting that both the patients are currently under United Nations Mission in South Sudan clinic. (Xinhua)

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