South Sudan confirms omicron variant in the country

By Simon Deng

Reports from samples collected from South Sudan and sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute indicate that omicron variant is in South Sudan according to Doctor John Rumunu, the Covid-19 Incident Manager

“We have received an initial report from UVRI, and this most recent genomic sequencing interim report indicates that omicron lineage is present in south Sudan and seem to dominate the December samples sent to UVRI, so we are dealing with omicron in the country,” said Rumunu.

The health ministry says it sent eighty one (81) samples for the test and most of the results turned positive for omicron variant of the coronavirus.

According to Brenda Dineen, the Covid-19 Vaccine coordination for the world health organization, vaccines accessibility has increased in South Sudan, adding that health ministry and partners are working to extend the supplies to the remaining 10 counties. 

“The accessibility to the vaccine has increase, in fact 150,011 have been fully vaccinated since October, we had establish 254 health facilities in 70 counties, now we have to restart to extend even further,” said Dineen.

Sacha Bootsma, the Covid-19 Incident manager for the World health organization said that omicron is moving fast across the globe, noting that vaccination and public health social measures are needed to curb the spread of infections. 

“We have seen the increase in cases, at this particular point in time we both have delta variant and omicron that are the twin threats as we call them driving up the cases to record numbers which again is leading to spikes in hospitalization and also deaths,” said Bootsma.

South Sudan registered 14 new cases on Saturday bringing the total cumulative to 15638,the cumulative recovered stand at 12934 and 136 cumulative death since the outbreak started in April 2020.