A health professional shows reporters the coronavirus testing tool kits in Juba on Tuesday, Mar 3, 2020 | Credit | Woja Emmanuel/Eye Radio.

Health workers responding to Covid-19 are due to stage an indefinite country-wide protest this morning over what they call non-payment of their incentives by the government.

In a statement seen by Eye Radio, the Covid-19 health cadres, say they have not been paid for nine months now.

Their decision comes nearly two weeks after the Ministry of Health said it had downsized the number of health workers deployed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic across the country over inadequate funding.

Earlier, the ministry said it had cut down the number of the rapid response and surveillance teams, as well as Coronavirus homecare team to half.

It also recalled its staff deployed at Nimule border points.

According to the frontline health workers, they have not been paid their dues since September 2020.

“We are glad to inform the public that we have exhausted the administrative procedure with the ministry of Health and South Sudan National Taskforce on Covid-19 Pandemic that has resulted in loss of follow-up of patients over unfulfilled promise in demanding for our nine month incentive,” partly reads the statement.

According to the letter, they had given the Ministry of Health until Wednesday to respond, but the demand went unheard.

South Sudan has in recent weeks been reporting fewer cases of the coronavirus.

As of May 26, two more people were confirmed with the virus. The latest incidences bring the total number of active cases to 59.