Eastern Equatoria has registered 42 positive cases of corona virus, confirmed Dr. Elijio Omoro Tahir, chairperson of high level taskforce for Covid-19 in the state.
He explained that the 42 positive cases are from the 187 cumulative samples sent to Juba for testing, Radio Emmanuel reported.
The report indicates 31 cases in Torit, ten in Nimule and one in Kapoeta.
‘Yesterday the total number of samples collected were 187, the cumulative number of cases confirmed in Torit only is 31, Kapoeta 1 and Nimule is 10, report of all together eastern Equatoria is 42, we sent our team to follow their contacts, they collected samples from the contact sent to Juba, we received some of the results yesterday, the good thing is that they were all negative’, he explained.
According to Omoro, the state Ministry of Health and other health partners have distributed face masks to approximately 13,000 people in Torit.
He encouraged people to observe COVID-19 preventive measures and follow radio programs for more awareness on the pandemic.
‘The kind of measures we have been trying telling people were played on radio on constant bases for people to follow to prevent them from corona virus, we have notice people are not taking this practice, for example we distributed masks nearly thirteen thousand, but if you go to market you rarely see anybody wearing it, and that is a place one should be wearing a mask because there is a lot of crowding there, but people are not observing this even our motorbike riders are not wearing. I thought they would tell passengers to put on mask but they don’t do so this are some of the difficulties we have’, he regretted.
The chairperson said Eastern Equatoria is almost the leading in South Sudan with number of COVID-19 patients
He attributed the high rate of infection in the state to poor practices over preventive measures amongst community members.
‘Before you come in please you wash your hands, this is what we expect everybody and all institutions to have, as long as we don’t follow this measures we shall have more cases, that is actually the situation we are in, because initially we have one case, 2,3, and we now have 42. We are among the worst state in South Sudan, ours is so bad, because we are not taking precautions people are not listening, they don’t believe that the disease is their but the reality is that covid-19 is there unless we follow the precaution measures, for time being people seem not to take it serious because we have only two death cases till now’, Omoro said.
The director talked to Radio Emmanuel on Friday.