Sierra Leone will impose a four-day, countrywide “lockdown” starting
September 18, an escalation of efforts to halt the spread of Ebola
across the West African country, a senior official in the president’s
office has said.
The move underscores the radical steps West African nations are being
pushed to take, over six months into an outbreak that is the worst on
record and shows no sign of easing having already killed over 2,100
people since March.
Citizens will not be allowed to leave their homes between September
18-21 in a bid to prevent the disease from spreading further and allow
health workers to identify cases in the early stages of the illness,
said Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a presidential adviser on the country’s Ebola
task force.
“The aggressive approach is necessary to deal with the spread of
Ebola once and for all,” he told Reuters. As of Friday, Sierra Leone has
recorded 491 of the total of suspected, probable and confirmed Ebola
deaths, according to United Nations’ figures.
Kargbo said 21,000 people would be recruited to enforce the lockdown.
Thousands of police and soldiers have already been deployed to enforce
the quarantining of towns in Sierra Leone’s worst-hit regions near the
border with Guinea.
Organizations from across the world are rushing funds and equipment
to West Africa, but Ebola is spreading faster than ever and experts say
the lack of trained staff in weak health systems is a major obstacle to
the response.
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