The Ministry of Health has said South Sudan is well prepared to track and detect the latest Coronavirus variant.

Last week, the National Institute of Communicable Disease in South Africa announced the outbreak of Omicron.

The variant is believed to have a very unusual constellation of mutations.

Early evidence suggests Omicron has a higher re-infection risk.

As a result, several countries have issued a travel ban from South Africa and other countries that have detected the variant.

The acting Covid-19 Incident Manager and also the Director General of Preventive Health Services – Dr. John Rumunu – said the country is well prepared for the latest variant.

“I want to assure you that we as ministry of health are on track with WHO recommendations, and one of the recommendations to member states is to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts so as to understand the circulating variants,” said John Rumunu.

“I want to let you know that we are up to date with that, we are on track with that and we also have epidemiological surveillance in place.

“With this epidemiological and lab surveillance are also being performed to know exactly what other variants we have. I think when it comes here, we will be able to catch it.”