An investigation by South Sudan’s government has found that senior officials may not have tested properly for Covid-19 before travelling overseas.
President Salva Kiir was forced to cancel a trip to Qatar in November after several members of his staff who went ahead of him tested positive for the virus when they arrived.
An investigation by the South Sudan government revealed that many senior officials were directing the lab technicians to only do an oral swab and not the intended combination of oral and nasal swabs. This could result in a false negative reading.
In response to the Doha incident, Vice-President Hussein Abdelbag made an announcement on state TV, which raised suspicions as he spoke of the need to “end the habits of travelling without a Covid-19 certificate” and vowed that he would hold any health facility that is responsible for issuing fake certificates accountable.
Following the vice-president’s broadcast, local media began reporting that the officials had set off from the capital, Juba, armed with fake certificates that said they had tested negative for coronavirus.
Ayaga Garang Deng from the vice-president’s office denied that the vice-president’s announcement was an admission of misconduct but said there was concern that some government officials had travelled without taking the Covid test. He also told the BBC that the incident was a national embarrassment to the country, and was being investigated.
It is not clear if this means that the officials did not take the test at all, or did not take it correctly. -BBC
