Sudan: 14 confirmed coronavirus cases

The Sudanese Ministry of Health reported two new cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in Khartoum, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 14. Two patients have died.

The ministry calls on all citizens to adhere to the guidelines, and to contact the hospital if they feel any symptoms, or have been in contact with any of the confirmed cases.

The High Committee for Health Emergencies has mandated its committees to prepare final reports on the decision whether or not to impose a complete lockdown, or to close down busy markets and stores that do not sell basic needs of people.

Information Minister Feisal Mohamed Saleh told reporters after the meeting of the High Committee yesterday, that the ministers of finance, industry, trade, social development and labour submitted recommendations on the way that the Ministry of Finance can provide basic goods or financial support to affected sectors in case of a complete lockdown.

The Central Council of the Forces for Freedom and Change will support a complete lockdown in Khartoum, based on an assessment of the corona pandemic presented at a meeting in the capital on Tuesday.

The Central Council said in a press statement yesterday that it sees the necessity of a complete lockdown, beginning in Khartoum where all 14 coronavirus cases are concentrated.

Wad Madani

In Wad Madani, Rashid Saeed, director of the El Gezira General Department of Health Emergencies and Epidemics, said yesterday that the sample of a patient that was suspected of being infected with the coronavirus in El Gezira was tested negative.

Op-ed

Last week, Radio Dabanga published an op-ed by Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Africa Centre. He stated that “given the almost total lack of testing and near-absent health care system, that figure [of confirmed cases in Sudan] is most assuredly grossly underestimated”.

“Last week alone, more than three hundred Sudanese suspected by health officials as having the virus escaped from government-administered quarantine facilities, while one hundred Sudanese nationals returning from Egypt were reportedly able to evade health screenings at the border”, he said.

He summarised that Sudan is “in perhaps one of the worst situations anywhere in the world to mobilize an effective national response because of grinding poverty, lack of household savings to offset lost income, lack of access to clean water, proper sanitation, and health supplies, and millions living in displaced persons camps across Darfur and the Two Areas where Covid-19 could rip through with devastating effect.”

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