UAE donates 7000 tons of medicine to South Sudan

By Kitab Unango and Ikilas Henry
The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week donated medical equipment worth 7000 tons to South Sudan to help curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Africa’s youngest nation.
This was confirmed by Tut Gatluak, Presidential Security Advisor who received the consignment on behalf of the government at Juba International airport Monday last week.
It will be handed over to the South Sudan National Taskforce on COVID-19 to be distributed to hospitals across the country for the fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
According to Gatluak, the country has never received such a bulk quantity of medicine since the outbreak of COVID-19 early April this year.
“I thank the people of United Arab Emirates for the support they have offered to the people of South Sudan. No any other apart from the United Arab Emirate, have extended such a remarkable support to the country during this hard situation of COVID-19,” said Gatluak.
Earlier, some experts and international communities referred to South Sudan health system as fragile, thus unable to curb the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
South Sudan has so far registered over 2000 confirmed cases with at least 45 death cases and more than 1000 recoveries.
The virus has spread to most of parts of the country including Yei River County, Torit, Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Western Equatoria States with most cases confirmed in the capital, Juba.
Last week, the National taskforce on COVID-19 pandemic announced that the country’s number of infection was going down with few confirmed cases per day compared to previous months.
Despite reduction in number of infection countrywide this month, the government has maintained lockdown on schools, churches and social gatherings.