South Sudan Minister Makuei tests positive for Covid-19
Thursday May 21 2020
South Sudan's Information Minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth. He has tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Juba,
South Sudan’s Information Minister and government spokesman, Michael Makuei, has tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus.
He is the third top official in Juba to inform the public about his positive test. He is asymptomatic, he clarified.
First Vice President Riek Machar and his wife Angelina Teny, who is also the Defence minister, had on Monday announced they had contracted the virus. Both are asymptomatic.
Mr Makuei told The East African on Wednesday night that he and several of his colleagues who sat on the initial High-Level Taskforce on Covid-19 had tested positive for the viral disease.
“I have decided to isolate myself from the public,” he said on the phone. “Since I tested positive, there is no need to hide it from the public because this is one way of protecting others. I also advise people not to visit me for now, but [to] communicate on phone whenever necessary for I don’t want to be a carrier spreading the virus.”
The Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Elia Lomuro, one of the members of the defunct taskforce, said in a statement that he tested negative for the virus.
On Wednesday, South Sudan confirmed 134 new Covid-19 cases, bring the country’s tally to 481. It has also recorded four deaths and four recoveries so far.