JUBA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 200 after nine new cases tested positive, bringing the total number to 203 countrywide.
Makur Matur Koriom, undersecretary in the Ministry of Health, said the public health laboratory released 108 samples which were tested in the last 24 hours. All the latest cases are all South Sudanese.
He said the latest cases were part of the ongoing contact tracing and surveillance, including suspects tracing in the country, noting that six were female while three are male persons with the age group of between 18 and 62.
He reiterated that the ministry of health has now divided the capital into five zones and within the zones, there are 44 health facilities used for random testing.
The official said a full-contact tracing operation is underway and called on all the contacts to cooperate with the country's rapid response teams.
The spike in COVID-19 cases comes in the wake of the government easing rules and directives it issued on March 25, as part of measures to help contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Enditem