The news has been reported from health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo about a fresh Ebola outbreak in the country’s northwest, barely a month to the anticipated end to the Ebola epidemic outbreak in the country’s east.
The newest outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever in the Central African country comes as a health emergency fights a surging number of coronavirus outbreak with 3,195 infections and 72 deaths.
“Four people have already died,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo said this on Monday during a press conference on the fatalities of the Ebola in a district of the northwestern city of Mbandaka.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister announced that samples from Mbandaka tested positive for Ebola, assuring that government would respond swiftly to the health challenge with vaccine and medicine.
Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur, boasts of a transport hub on the Congo River with a population of more than one million.
So far, 2,280 people have died from the Ebola outbreak in the vast country’s east. The newest report dashed the hope of proclaiming the epidemic over on June 25, 2020.
People of the country are under movement measures against the pandemic spread with a travel ban still in force between Mbandaka and in the rest of the country.
The World Health Organization has extended its Public Health Emergency to International Concern Designation for the epidemic, especially in the North Kivu province.
No coronavirus cases have been reported in Equater province while the country still maintains movement measures since March 20, 2020 in its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Longondo cautioned it would be too risky to lift measures against coronavirus spread.
As DR Congo battles with the epidemic and pandemic, the country is also facing a measles outbreak, recording 6,000 deaths since last year, as well as a stubborn flare-ups of cholera and malaria.
