South Sudan and Uganda have agreed and set up a joint cross-border committee to help fight COVID-19 pandemic in both countries.
According to The Tower Post, the deal was reached in a joint meeting held in Nimule last Thursday funded by the European Union and IGAD COVID-19 response to health and social impacts.
The Director-General for Health in South Sudan, John Rumunu said there is need to urgently organize an information-sharing mechanism on COVID-19 between the leaderships of the two nations to find a way forward on how to jointly fight the pandemic.
“That is why we have called for and arranged this inter-cross border dialogue to foster good coordination between the two sides so that we can work together through sharing of important information and interventions on COVID-19,” he explained.
Rumunu said it is important to form COVID-19 committees to look into the health issues of locals along the borders and set up measures for daily updates on corona virus situations.
The Uganda national entry focal point-to-point officer at the health ministry, Harriet Mayinja, said a joint cross-border committee will enhance public health surveillance and control measures at the local cross-border level.
“The cross border committee will also establish cross-border communications and coordination mechanisms to enable timely information-sharing at the local levels, to ensure proper environmental and health-care conditions for the populations sharing the borders”, she said.
The cross border committee will comprise of ten members from the two countries.