Kampala, May 23 (IANS) Uganda on Saturday confirmed three more new Ebola cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to five.

The country’s Ministry of Health updated that a Ugandan driver who transported the first confirmed case, a Ugandan health worker who got exposed while taking care of the first confirmed case, and a Congolese woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who entered Uganda with symptoms are the new confirmed cases.

The ministry noted that all three patients are now receiving treatment.

It also added that all contacts linked to the confirmed cases have been identified and are being monitored closely by response teams.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Saturday acknowledged Uganda’s Ministry of Health for their efforts to detect, monitor and care for people suspected of and confirmed to have contracted the Ebola virus.

“At this critical moment in the outbreak response, it is vital that authorities maintain high vigilance to control the expansion of the virus,” the WHO chief noted.

“WHO is working side by side with Africa CDC and partners in the DRC and Uganda, to contain the outbreak, support affected people, and bolster a coordinated response,” he added.

The public health risk from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been upgraded from high to very high, the WHO said on Friday.

“We are revising our risk assessment of Ebola to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

Meanwhile, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) called for enhanced solidarity to rapidly contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said on Friday that he is allocating up to $60 million from the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and the wider region.

–IANS

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