Ebola: Sierra Leone Begins 3-Day Countrywide Lockdown

Sierra Leone on Friday began a three-day
countrywide lockdown in an attempt to halt the
spread of Ebola Virus Disease.
Alfred Conteh, Head, National Ebola Response
Centre said on Friday said the lockdown followed 55
reported new Ebola cases last week.

Conteh said 6 million people would have to stay at
home until Sunday, while health workers go from
door to door to collect information on new Ebola
infections and deaths.

He said health workers would focus their efforts on
Freetown and the country's northern region.

Patrick Fatoma, another Ebola Response Centre
official, expressed the hope that the exercise would
be the last push to end the Ebola outbreak.
Sierra Leone's government said a similar exercise
which took place last September was a success in
slowing down the transmission of the virus.

Sierra Leone is one of the countries hardest hit by the
Ebola epidemic, with 11,866 reported infections and
3,764 deaths.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) record
indicates that in the last 16 months the number of
people who have contracted Ebola has reached
24,927 worldwide, with 10,338 deaths.

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