South Sudan on Thursday recorded its first death from the deadly coronavirus, the country's high-level taskforce on COVID-19 said in a statement.

The identity and other details of the deceased were not provided.

According to the taskforce, the public health laboratory confirmed 28 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections to 231 with three recoveries.

“Of these 28 cases, 27 South Sudanese and one Kenyan, were confirmed positive including one death,” it said.

The statement further said the new cases were confirmed positive after the public health laboratory in Juba tested 214 samples.

"Of the confirmed cases, contacts were two, five alerts, one suspect and 20 from Juba zones," the taskforce explained.

The statement added that 24 of all confirmed cases were males while females counted for four cases with overall age range between 6 and 60 years.

The taskforce urged members of the public to report suspicious cases to the nearest health facility or call the health ministry’s toll-free hotline 6666.