Democratic Republic of Congo declared a new Ebola epidemic on Monday in the western city of Mbandaka. Five people have died in Mbandaka and it is unclear how the disease emerged in the city during lockdown. 

According to Health Minister Eteni Longondo, “We have a new Ebola epidemic in Mbandaka. We are going to very quickly send them the vaccine and medicine.”  

Longondo also stated that the new Ebola outbreak has killed four people, and infected at least two more, in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million people on the country’s western side. A fifth person died on Monday, according to UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children. 

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who tweeted: “This outbreak is a reminder that #COVID19 is not the only health threat people face.” 

“It’s happening at a challenging time, but WHO has worked over the last two years with health authorities, Africa CDC and other partners to strengthen national capacity to respond to outbreaks,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “To reinforce local leadership, WHO plans to send a team to support scaling up the response. Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighbouring countries we must act quickly.” 

According to Reuters, “It was days away in April from declaring the end of that outbreak, its tenth since the virus was discovered in 1976, when a new chain of infection was confirmed in the east. However, no new cases have been detected there in over 30 days.” 

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