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

The high-level task force on coronavirus says the Ministry of Health is investigating four more suspected cases of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Over the weekend, South Sudan confirmed its first case of COVID-19.

The deputy chairperson of the COVID-19 Task Force, First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, announced this at a press conference in Juba on Sunday.

The task force further said the Ministry of Health, W.H.O and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating the outbreak, including identifying and following up all the possible contacts.

The undersecretary of the ministry of health – Dr. Makur Koriom – told the press in Juba yesterday that the four suspected cases came from Torit, Maban and Tonj.

“The situation remained the same, we still have one case, we had four alerts today (Monday) which we are investigating,” Dr. Koriom said before adding, “the four alerts are normal, we get them almost on a daily basis” to investigate.

“We have also rounded up about 34 contacts of the case confirmed on Sunday and we are continuing to investigate and we have taken samples of some of the people and in the coming days more information will be released with regard to this particular contact,” he stated.

Dr. Koriom stated that the task force has stepped up surveillance to ensure that people in Juba and in the states are protected.

On a separate development, Dr. Koriom revealed that the ministry is training 120 doctors and nurses at Dr. John Garang Infectious Disease Unit in Juba to boost the government’s response plan.

“We have commenced training last week of about 120 doctors, nurses and supporting staff and that training is ongoing at the Dr. John Garang Center for Infectious Disease. We are also training trainers who will then now go to the states throughout the training to the states so that’s what’s going on at the moment.”

South Sudanese have been advised to follow the measures and anti-coronavirus guidelines to contain its spread.

In the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization reported that Africa has 6,616 confirmed cases with 243 deaths. Globally, the tally is now up to 1,210,956 confirmed cases and 67,594 deaths.