A young woman being vaccinated against Covid-19. PHOTO | COURTESY

The South Sudan government has reaffirmed a complete lifting of all COVID-19 restrictions on travelers in the country, and cautions travel and security agencies against demanding vaccination proof or money from the public.

This comes nine months after the World Health Organization declared an end to the virus as a public health emergency.

The coronavirus restriction in South Sudan were first imposed by the National COVID-19 Taskforce in August 2021.

At the time, the government declared nighttime curfews, banned social gatherings and introduced COVID-19 vaccination cards for travelers, among others.

However, in October 2022, the government decided to scrap most of the Covid-19 restrictions but maintained the guidelines for travelers in and out of the country. The travel restrictions were ultimately lifted in September 2023.

The taskforce chaired by Vice President Hussein Abdelbagi on Friday reaffirmed that the government will no longer mandate travelers entering the country to produce a COVID vaccine proof.

“The agenda that we back on today was the reaffirming of lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions,” said Health Minister Yolanda Awel Deng.

Minister Awel cautions travelers to be vigilant and report those illegally demanding vaccination proof or money from travelers.

“South Sudan does not require you to test negative upon entering the country South Sudan does not look through what we call travel form when you are entering the country and the same thing, vice versa.”

“So, we are trying to reaffirm to the public if anybody is doing these measures, they are against the national health policy.”

South Sudan has confirmed 18,313 COVID-19 cases leading to 138 deaths and over 18,000 recoveries since the first outbreak was declared in the country in March 2020.

While declaring an end to pandemic in May 2023, WHO, warned that the virus, which has killed about 7 million people globally since it started in 2019, could still be a global threat.