After Three Days Of Shutdown: Sierra Leone Discovers 150 New Cases Of Ebola

Dozens of dead bodies and about 150 new cases of the Ebola infection have been found after a three-day shutdown in Sierra Leone. This comes after the West African country confined its citizens for 72-hours to stem the deadly outbreak. Emergency services say three days of nationwide shutdown in Sierra Leone to contain the spread of the Ebola virus has come to an end. "We have an overflow of bodies which we still need to bury but this has been an everyday occurrence since the Ebola outbreak.... Now at least we have about 150 new cases," Steven Gaojia, head of the country's emergency operation noted earlier. 

Sierra Leone's health minister says volunteers managed to reach around 80 percent of homes, deeming the action as a success. "We have learnt a lot from the campaign. Although this campaign has ended, there is a possibility we would have a similar one some other time," Health Minister Abubakarr Fofanah said, adding, "I cannot...give you [now] statistics about the total corpses collected during the three-day period as we are...awaiting returns from other parts of the country and this will be made known as soon as the full report is compiled."

Health professionals and critics of the controversial shutdown say it was a poorly planned publicity stunt since health professionals were not trained properly. More than 2,600 people have lost their lives in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea so far this year.