Kiir is not COVID-19 positive as over 20 employees in his office tested positive -Ateny

The president’s spokesperson, Ateny dismissed the report on Monday by a Ugandan television, NBS Television, that President Kiir tested positive. Though he confirmed that Over 20 employees at the South Sudanese president’s office have tested positive for Covid-19.

Ateny, in a report by Radio Tamazuj, explained that the president has not contracted the virus, He even further stated that the president was in the office and that he just went back home.

He further explained that about 20 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the office of the president. These are junior personnel like drivers, cooks, and bodyguards. Two junior officials in the office, who have no contact with the president, also tested positive.

 According to Ateny, the South Sudanese leader is healthy and has not contracted the virus contrary to “rumours making rounds in South Sudan and the region.”

Apart from rumours circulating to the effect that President Kiir and members of his staff, including presidential affairs minister, Nhial Deng Nhial tested positive for Covid-19, .

He also mentioned that the president has been working from home as a precaution because there are people in the office of the president who tested positive for Covid-19. A driver and a bodyguard who travel in the presidential vehicle tested positive but the president was negative.”

According to Ateny, as a precaution, it was decided that the president work from home and that all officials take the Covid-19 test and if one tests positive then they have to follow the procedure of quarantining for 14 days till they recover and test negative. 

He said that the presidential affairs minister, security minister, Gen. Obutu Mamur, the executive director in the president’s office, and all the secretaries of the president tested negative and are all well.

Earlier this month, the South Sudan Taskforce on Covid-19 reintroduced a one-month partial lockdown after a surge of cases across the country.

Today alone, the Public Health Laboratory in Juba recorded four new Covid-19 deaths and 152 confirmed cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 6,084.