Sierra Leone has declared a state of public
emergency to tackle the worst ever outbreak of
Ebola and will call in security forces to quarantine
epicentres of the deadly virus, President Ernest Bai
Koroma said in a statement.
package announced by neighbouring Liberia on
Wednesday evening. Koroma announced he was
cancelling a visit to Washington for a U.S.-Africa
summit next week because of the crisis and
would instead hold an emergency meeting with
regional leaders in Guinea on Friday.
Highly infectious Ebola has been blamed for 672
deaths in the West Africa nations of Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the World
Health Organization.
"I hereby proclaim a State of Public Emergency to
enable us take a more robust approach to deal
with the Ebola outbreak," he said in a speech late
on Wednesday, adding that the measures would
initially last between 60 and 90 days. "All
epicenters of the disease will be quarantined."
Koroma said that the police and the military
would restrict movements to and from epicenters,
and would provide support to health officers and
NGOs to do their work unhindered, following a
number of attacks on healthworkers by local
communities.
He said that house-to-house searches would be
implemented to trace Ebola victims and
quarantine them. He also said that new protocols
had been established for passengers arriving and
departing Lungi International Airport outside
Freetown, but he did not provide further details,
reports Reuters.
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