Sierra Leone Ends Three-Day Ebola Shutdown

Sierra Leone on Sunday midnight lifted the three-day shutdown launched to contain the Ebola outbreak in the country. Authorities have declared the shutdown as a success.

The head of Sierra Leone's Emergency Operations Centre, Stephen Gaojia, said that the shutdown exercise was successful on the whole.

He said that people were receptive to the exercise and extended full co-operation to the authorities.

"We were able to discover quite a lot of people who have been infected... the numbers are not available as of today but I can assure you that we already have a little over 150 people who willingly reported to the nearest holding or isolation centre to be tested," he said, reports BBC.

According to Deputy Chief Medical Officer Sarian Kamara, health care workers buried between 60 to 70 dead bodies in the past two days,

He also said that the authorities were able to discover 22 new cases of the virus during the shutdown.

"Had they not been discovered, they would have greatly increased transmission," he said, reports BBC.

Authorities were hoping that the shutdown would be a major boost in containing the spread of the disease. Although there were reports that the shutdown may be extended, the health ministry issued a statement on Sunday night that the shutdown was over.

The statement said the health workers contacted 75 percent of the targeted 1.5 million households in the country. It also said that the outreach would go on in areas where large numbers of cases are reported in the country, reports the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, authorities opened a new 150-bed treatment center in Liberia on Sunday.  The center was soon flooded with patients as four ambulances full of patients arrived right away after it was opened, reports AP.