South Sudan's Central Bank governor contracts Covid-19

Juba,

The governor of South Sudan’s Central Bank announced Friday that he has tested positive for Covid-19.

Dier Tong made the revelation in a Facebook post in which he said he was self-quarantining.

“To all my family members, colleagues and friends, this is to announce that I have tested Covid-19 positive. As of now, I have no severe symptoms, only a mild body and muscle ache and a mild dry cough. No fever, no loss of taste and smell or running nose,” he wrote.

“I will be working from home since I will be on self-quarantine for the next two weeks. I shall be updating you from time to time.”

On Tuesday, four senior officials working in the Office of the President announced that they had contracted the virus. They included Ateny Wek Ateny, the press secretary.

In May last year, South Sudan’s First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, and his wife Angelina Teny, the Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, came out as the first top government to announce that they had contracted the virus.

Other senior officials

Days after their announcement, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth and former minister for National Security, Dr Majak Agoot made similar announcements.

Weeks after his appointment, the chairman of the National Committee on Covid-19 and fifth Vice President, Hussein Abdelbagi, also said he was sick with Covid-19.

In December last year, former ambassador to Russia and former Presidential Legal Advisor, Telar Ring Deng, died at the Aspen medical facility, days after declaring on social media that he had been suffering from Covid-19.

Last week, the South Sudan National Taskforce on Covid-19 reintroduced a partial lockdown amid a surge of cases across the country.

On Friday alone, South Sudan recorded two new deaths and 176 cases, the highest figures since the beginning of the year, according to the Public Health Laboratory.

The country has at least 5,310 confirmed cases, 74 deaths and 3,769 recoveries.

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