South Sudan Country Director for International Rescue Committee or IRC Caroline Sekyewa called for a rapid increase of funds to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19.
She said ‘if we do not act now, many will lose their lives. But, with funding deployed quickly, we can improve the health response; inform the community about the disease and work to mitigate the spread as much as possible, all while continuing our ongoing life-saving work’.
The director in a statement CRN got on Monday following report of one case of COVID-19 in Juba said ‘the people of South Sudan have already endured six years of terrible war, famine and a collapsed economy’.
She explained that IRC has reached 1.1 million people with health care services and other critical programming and has been training health staff to recognize symptoms and safely isolate suspected cases.
Sekyewa said the new transitional government is now faced with fighting this pandemic when the country has not had enough time to rebuild.
She pointed out that the health care system will not be able to withstand a rapid increase in cases.
The country director disclosed that IRC has launched a 30 million US Dollars appeal; to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus among the world’s most vulnerable populations.
‘We are working across three key areas: to mitigate and respond to the spread of coronavirus within vulnerable communities; protect IRC staff; and ensure the continuation of our life-saving programming as much as possible’, she said.