Contrary to the social distancing directive, Juba residents marched to a food distribution site at Juba One Girls' Primary School on Thursday, April 2, 2020 | Credit | Courtesy

There is need for strong measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the French Ambassador to South Sudan has said.

South Sudan now has a cumulative total of 231 cases with 3 recoveries and 1 death.

The country has eased coronavirus restrictions despite the spiral in the number of cases.

On Monday, the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority officially announced the reopening of all airports to domestic and international flights.

But regional countries, including Uganda and Kenya, are yet to lift travel bans.

Ambassador Marc Trouyet says South Sudanese should be discipline and respect the guidelines put in place to curb the spread of the virus.

“You can see I am still wearing a mask because this is one of the measures needed to be observe to prevent the disease from spreading,” Amb Trouyet told reporters in Juba on Thursday, after meeting the Vice President in charge of Infrastructure Cluster- Taban Deng Gai.

Several amateur videos photographs showing sheer violations of the anti-coronavirus preventive measures circulated on the social media recently.

The violators include some politicians, a church leader, youth and grocers in the markets.

“Still I advise the people of South Sudan…to respect social distancing, to avoid contact, wash their hand always because the virus is still active and we need to be combating it,”   he added.