Sierra Leone Quarantines Half Its Population To Stem Ebola Outbreak

Sierra Leone has quarantined thousands of its citizens in an effort to slow the outbreak of Ebola, health officials announced on Tuesday. More than half of the country is already under quarantine, and the Daily Mail reported that the district of Tonkolili will be the sixth to be restricted.

A two-week “lockdown” was agreed upon by district chiefs and the country’s cabinet and parliament as the death toll rose to 1,400 victims. No one is allowed to leave or enter quarantines without permission to do so.

Over a million people were indefinitely quarantined in the districts of Bombali, Port Loko and Moyamba in September. Two other districts in the east -- Kenema and Kailahun -- were quarantined in August.

The current Ebola outbreak is the deadliest ever -- sickening nearly 17,000 throughout West Africa. The number of Sierra Leone’s citizens under quarantine is now over 3 million, or more than half of its total population of 6 million. One district, Tonkolili, is scheduled to end its quarantine on Dec. 15.

In the U.S., a suspected Ebola patient has been admitted to a hospital on Tuesday. The Massachusetts General Hospital notified its staff in a memo that the patient was under isolation, and that the diagnosis had not been confirmed.