The government said 700
properties had been locked down in Aberdeen, a fishing and tourist
district of Freetown, after the death of a fisherman who tested positive
for the deadly tropical virus.
"We
are on top of the situation and people should not panic," said Obi
Sesay of the government's National Ebola Response Centre, adding that a
special control centre had been set up to deal with the incident.
He
told reporters Aberdeen had been "flooded" with surveillance officers
and contact tracers to ensure the death didn't turn into a serious
outbreak.
The west African
nation of six million has seen almost 11,000 cases and 3,363 deaths
during the epidemic which has raged in west Africa for more than a year.
President Ernest Bai Koroma had
pointed to a "steady downward trend" in new cases on January 23, lifting
country-wide quarantines affecting half the population and declaring
that "victory is in sight".
But
optimism gave way to fresh alarm on Wednesday as the World Health
Organization (WHO) reported the number of new cases rising across Sierra
Leone and neighbouring Guinea for the second week running.
Transmission
remains "widespread" in Sierra Leone, which reported 76 new confirmed
cases in the week to February 8, according to the WHO.
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