Sierra Leone will
impose a four-day, countrywide "lockdown" starting Sept. 18, an
escalation of efforts to halt the spread of Ebola across the West African
country, a senior official in the president's office said on Friday, AP reports.
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 Sept. 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 U.N. figures.
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