Ebola Mass Quarantine: 2.5 Million People in Sierra Leone Lockdown

Updated

Sierra Leone enforcing lockdown to contain Ebola epidemic

Sierra Leone authorities will enforce a three-day lockdown of key parts of the country to try to contain the Ebola epidemic.

Some 3,702 deaths from the epidemic have been reported across the West African country, said World Health Organization (WHO).

The lockdown is expected to affect about 2.5 million people, and will come into effect next week.

“The lockdown will be conducted from March 27 to March 29 and will be like the one we conducted in September last year,” said the country’s National Ebola Response Center.

It follows a three-day curfew in September 2014, which forbade people from leaving their home.

WHO released the EBOLA situation summary on March 20, 2015 (latest), which includes the total number of reported cases and deaths (confirmed, probable and suspected) for the high transmission countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone).

• Guinea: 3,404 cases, with 2,241 deaths [As of March 18, 2015]
• Liberia: 9,555 cases, with 4,283 deaths  [As of March 17, 2015]
• Sierra Leone: 11,794 cases, with 3,712 deaths [As of March 18, 2015]
  Sub total: 24,753 cases, with 10,236 fatalities

In addition to the above, 8 Ebola deaths were reported in Nigeria, 6 in Mali and 1 in the U.S., bringing the total number of reported deaths since the start of the latest epidemic to 10,251.