Cases continue to climb sharply in Sierra Leone, and the head of the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) said the surge is a major focus of the outbreak response, partly to prevent the virus from spreading to other West African countries.
At Africa CDC’s weekly update today, Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, said 611 cases were reported in the most recent week, up from 483 the previous week. The country’s hot spots are six districts in West Area Urban and West Area Rural states, which include Freetown, the country’s capital. Of confirmed cases, males account for 68% in the outbreak driven by clade 2b, which is the strain circulating globally.
Challenges with contract tracing
Kaseya said the country has good test coverage and a good testing rate, but contact tracing has been a challenge, with only two…