A three-day lockdown aimed at stemming the world’s worst ever Ebola epidemic has ended in Sierra Leone.
Authorities said the controversial operation had identified dozens of new infections and located scores of bodies.
In the most extreme strategy employed by a nation since the epidemic began, Sierra Leone ordered its 6 million residents to stay indoors as volunteers circulated to educate households.
Authorities also isolated the sick and removed the dead.
In the early evening, even before the lockdown officially ended at midnight, residents in some parts of the capital Freetown emerged onto the streets to sing and dance.
Police in the western part of the city said they had made a number of arrests in an attempt to enforce the measure in its final hours.
Earlier in the day, head of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) that leads the national Ebola response, Stephen Gaojia, said a few areas had still not been reached by the government’s teams.
“Even though the exercise has been a huge success so far, it has not been concluded in some metropolitan cities like Freetown and Kenema,” he said.
Mr Gaojia said 92 bodies had been recovered across the country.
Some 123 people had contacted authorities during the drive, believing they might be infected.
Mr Gaojia said 56 tested positive, 31 negative and 36 were still awaiting results.
Ebola has infected at least 5,357 people in West Africa since March, mainly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, killing 2,630 of those, according to the World Health Organisation.
At least 562 have died in Sierra Leone.
The lockdown was intended to allow 30,000 health workers, volunteers and teachers to visit every household in the country.
Residents largely complied with the plan, with streets of the capital mostly deserted.
Spanish citizen tests positive
Spain evacuated a Spanish Catholic priest from Sierra Leone on Sunday after he tested positive for the virus.
Spain’s health ministry said that Manuel Garcia Viejo, a member of the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios, had been working in the western city of Lunsar.
He is the second Spanish priest to be diagnosed with Ebola.
Another member of the same order, Miguel Pajares, died last month after being brought back to Spain from Liberia.
Liberia, meanwhile, opened a new 150-bed Ebola treatment centre in the capital Monrovia on Sunday.
The country is currently the worst hit by the epidemic, which was first identified in neighbouring Guinea in March.
In Monrovia, a lack of beds in treatment centres has forced health workers to turn away infected patients, raising the risk of the disease’s further spread.
A second deployment of US troops arrived in Liberia on Sunday as part of an eventual mission of 3,000 soldiers helping its beleaguered health services.
The contingent will be focused on training local health workers and setting up facilities to help Liberia and its neighbours halt the spread of the virus.
Reuters/AFP