UN Says Mission in South Sudan Fighting COVID-19 Outbreak as 409 Peacekeepers Infected

UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2021) The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak with more than 400 of its peacekeepers fighting the infection, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a press briefing.

"We have numbers of 409 affected people in the UN Mission in South Sudan," Haq said on Friday when asked about how many members in the mission have recently contracted the novel coronavirus.

The UN spokesman explained UNMISS is doing everything possible in order to prevent the coronavirus from spreading outside the mission, adding that the infected peacekeepers have beenplaced under quarantine.

"We took immediate action to keep the involved contingents separate from others and from the society around them," Haq said.

UNMIS said it has some 18,000 personnel on the ground in South Sudan.