Encouraging

Ebola Lockdown Declared a Success

As Sierra Leone ends 3-day curfew.

Sierra Leone’s three-day curfew designed to contain the Ebola virus in the country has ended, with authorities declaring it a huge success and saying it will not be extended. The lockdown began Friday morning and confined most of the nation’s 6 million inhabitants to their homes while about 30,000 medical volunteers went to affected neighborhoods to find and treat patients and distribute soap. Authorities said they discovered 22 new cases, which they said would have increased transmission if not found. The curfew was the most aggresive measure in West Africa so far against Ebola. In hardest-hit Liberia, meanwhile, the number of beds for Ebola patients has quadrupled.