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| Various Districts of Sierra Leone and their various poverty levels. |
Sierra Leone restricted
travel Thursday into and within three more "hotspots" of Ebola where
1.5 million people live, meaning that more than a third of the country's
population is now under quarantine, several sources report.
Sierra Leone is one of
the hardest hit countries in an Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa that is
believed to have killed more than 2,900 people, according to World Health
Organization tolls published Thursday. The agency says the situation in Sierra
Leone continues to deteriorate, driven primarily by a sharp increase of cases
in the capital, Freetown.
In an address to the
nation on Wednesday night, President Ernest Bai Koroma put Port Loko, Bombali,
and Moyamba districts under isolation, meaning only people delivering essential
services can enter and circulate within these areas. WHO also noted that these
districts were seeing a rise in cases.
In other areas, including
in the capital, homes will be put under quarantine when cases are identified, a
government statement after the address said.
The Ebola outbreak, the
largest ever, has also hit Liberia and Guinea and is believed to have sickened
more than 6,200 people. An Ebola patient also slipped into Senegal from Guinea
but the disease does not appear to have spread there. Nigeria has linked 20
cases to the disease and eight deaths after a man infected with Ebola traveled
there from Liberia; the outbreak seems to have been contained there as well.
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