Officials of the Ministry of Health and WHO at a recent event in Juba. Photot/Eye Radio.

The high-level taskforce on COVID-19 has directed employees to return to full-time work.

This comes after the government started easing some anti-coronavirus restrictions, including constraints on travel and trade, despite a surge in coronavirus cases.

On March 22, the government announced a partial lockdown, before registering any case of COVID-19.

It closed shops, non-food markets, bars, and all learning institutions as preventive measures against the pandemic.

It asked employers to have all their staff work half day and only allow essential workers to continue on full time.

However, on Tuesday, the taskforce directed employers to alternate employees every two weeks.

“The high-level taskforce has decided that while we maintain a two-week alternating period at work whereby 50% of the workforce stay at home for two weeks, the other half should continue to work full-time from 9 am to 5 pm,” said Dr. Makur Koriom, the Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health.

“This is to also ensure that while we maintain social distancing at the workplace, we also ensure that the 50% that is on duty works full-time so that we can be able to add and rescue our economy.”

The taskforce also directed the ministries of Labor and Public Service and Human Resource to take necessary measures to implement the order.

The country recorded 20 new more cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, a day after announcing 18 cases – bringing the total cumulative number of cases to 194.