“We did not have an ambulance before. This ambulance is going to bring a lot of changes to how we operate here. Now we can go out to the counties and directly respond to COVID-19 cases.”

This was the grateful message shared by the Director-General of the Jonglei Ministry of Health, Dr. Samuel Majur, when a Toyota Landcruiser was handed over by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan as part of its effort to help prevent the spread COVID-19 and to care for those affected by the virus.  

The Director-General, along with other Ministry of Health and Bor State Hospital officials, were visibly excited as they accepted the donation, saying they would now be able to rapidly respond to anyone who became seriously ill after contracting COVID-19. 

“We will be able to reach further out to the communities and clinics in Bor to save the lives of our people who are sick and need urgent transportation to the hospital,” said Dr. Majur.

UNMISS Head of Field Office in Bor, Deborah Schein, said the donation would help make hospital treatment more mobile and effective.

“What we are trying to do is to support the work of the Task Force so that we can minimize any outbreak of COVID-19 in the area,” she said. “I also want to praise the doctors, health workers and all the clinics in Greater Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, they are doing an excellent job together with our doctors at UNMISS.”

The donation is just one of many activities undertaken by UNMISS to support the Jonglei COVID-19 Task Force in managing the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Mission’s peacekeeping engineers are rehabilitating a Critical Care Centre which will be used as a dedicated isolation facility to care for COVID-19 patients while ensuring people being treated for other illnesses are not exposed to the virus.

The Mission has also conducted a week-long educational drive on radio and directly within communities to raise awareness about COVID-19 so that people understand how to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. Informational pamphlets and posters have also been distributed along with face masks to communities across the region.

Greater Jonglei currently has four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nyirol and Fangak.