South Sudan is now able to test for the coronavirus in the country after assembling a testing facility and quarantine center in Juba, a health official says.
With the WHO assistance, the testing machine has been set up at the National Laboratory and a quarantine center at the Juba Teaching Hospital.
Last week, the Ministry of Health announced that the government had procured five testing machines to be set up at the major airports and border points.
It has also trained four qualified technical teams to operate the system.
South Sudan has so far had three suspected coronaviruses cases, all of which tested negative.
The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Makur Koryom, said the new facility will reduce the burden of sending samples of suspected cases to Uganda for testing.
“We can do it in-house if we have any suspected cases,” he told reporters in Juba on Tuesday.
Dr. Koryom added that other testing facilities will also be established at Wau and Yambio airports.
The World Health Organization has confirmed more than 92,000 cases of the virus of which more than 80,000 are in China.
More than 3,000 people have died globally, the vast majority in China.