Sierra Leone plans to ban parties and other festivities over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays as part of a “surge” to cut the risk of Ebola spreading further in the West African country, which is now the nation with the most cases of infection, officials said on Friday.
Freetown is struggling to reduce the spread of the viral hemorrhagic fever as the death toll in West Africa continues to rise, fueled in part by increasing infections in Sierra Leone.
Figures from the WHO on Friday showed that 6,583 people have died from the disease out of 18,188 cases in three West African states: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“The government is planning to keep people indoors during Christmas through Boxing Day and New Year,” said Jarrah Kawusu-Konte, a spokesman for Sierra Leonean president Ernest Bai Koroma.
He said that the government would deploy soldiers across the country to enforce the measure, which would include a ban on parties and other gatherings.
“When you have parties, the risks are very high. We are very anxious to break the chain of transmission through parties and gatherings,” Kawusu-Konte said.
He did not specify the date when the ban would take effect.
In addition to the ban on gatherings, Sierra Leonean authorities are also planning what they have called a “surge” in their response in and around the capital Freetown aimed at stemming the increasing rise of Ebola infections.
For several weeks, most of the new infections have been showing up in and around the capital, Freetown.
At least more than five areas in the far west and far east of the city will be specifically targeted as epidemiologists say sick people still refuse to report to treatment centers at those places.
Data published by the WHO on Friday showed that there have been about 8,086 cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone, with nearly 1,900 deaths.
The month-long surge, which is to start on Wednesday, is aimed at strengthening the country’s response to the epidemic, especially in terms of tracing people who have contracted the virus, according to Palo Conteh, the head of Sierra Leone’s National Ebola Response Center.
“We want to get sick people out of their homes and take them to treatment centers, more of which we will be opening next week,” Conteh said in Freetown.
Center coordinator Stephen Gaojia said there would be “door-to-door” visits as people were still dying at home because they are refusing to report to health facilities when infected.
He added that 900 beds would be made available to take in the sick to reduce the transmission rate in the western area after New Year’s Day.
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