Ten cabinet ministers of South Sudan have tested positive for the coronavirus but they don’t include President Salva Kiir and the minister of health.

Minister of Information Michael Makuei told the BBC that the ministers came into contact with a former member of the high-level task force on the coronavirus.

But the South Sudanese government said that the ministers were in good health after they placed themselves under self-quarantine.

Former opposition leader and now first vice president Riek Machar, his wife Angelina Teny and their staff and bodyguards tested positive for COVID-19 this week.

Machar’s press secretary said that he would self-quarantine in his residence for the next 14 days.

Makuei said that he and nine other ministers had also tested positive for COVID-19 but that he had no symptoms.

He said that the minister of health was the only member of the COVID-19 task force who was not positive.

He dismissed reports that President Salva Kiir, who was also a member of the task force, had been infected with the disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s last situation report put the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Sudan at 339.