Sudan’s committee to combat coronavirus announced Friday it will “renew and tighten” movement restrictions in the capital as the country’s case count increased to nearly 1,000 infections and 52 deaths.
Siddig Tawer Kafi, member of the ruling Sovereignty Council, said Sudan will extend the lockdown for Khartoum and its province for 10 days to May 19.
The government also extended the ban on communal praying in mosques through nearly the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Kafi promised Sudan’s transitional government will keep offering basics, such as bread and cooking gas, at reduced prices for struggling families.
With just a few hundred ventilators and international aid slow to materialize, the fledgling government knows it has an uphill battle against a coronavirus pandemic that has brought far richer countries to a standstill.
Doctors are concerned that a healthcare system that has been underfunded for decades will not be able to cope if numbers spike.
Health Minister Akram Ali Altom previously told Reuters that the country needed $120 million to fight the new virus and $150 million to cover medicines until June.
