Uganda's president extends Ebola epicentre's quarantine for 21 days

A medical worker disinfects a tent used for suspected Ebola victims inside the Ebola isolation centre of Madudu Health Centre III, in the village of Madudu, in the Mubende district of Uganda, Nov. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, File)

KAMPALA -

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has extended a quarantine placed on two districts that are the epicenter of the country's Ebola outbreak by 21 days, adding that his government's response to the disease was succeeding.

Movement into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda will be restricted up to Dec. 17, the presidency said late on Saturday. It was originally imposed for 21 days on Oct. 15, then extended for the same period on Nov. 5.

The extension were "to further sustain the gains in control of Ebola that we have made, and to protect the rest of the country from continued exposure."

The government's anti-Ebola efforts were succeeding with two districts now going for roughly two weeks without new cases, the president said.

"It may be too early to celebrate any successes, but overall, I have been briefed that the picture is good," he said in a statement.

The East African nation has so far recorded 141 infections. Fifty-five people have died since the outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever was declared on Sept. 20.

Although the outbreak was gradually being brought under control, the "situation is still fragile," Museveni said, adding that the country's weak health system and circulation of misinformation about the disease were still a challenge.

The Ebola virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain, which spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Kim Coghill)