Ebola-hit Guinea has extended a health emergency declared in March until the end of June, citing the persistence of the deadly virus in the country, the presidency said on Saturday.
The decision was taken on Friday by President Alpha Conde, the statement said, after he met his counterpart from Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma.
Impoverished Guinea and its neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia have registered more than 11,000 deaths since the epidemic flared up in December 2013.
Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but the virus continues to thrive in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In August last year, Conde declared a health emergency for the whole of Guinea. Then on March 28, 2015, he decreed a “reinforced health emergency” for five provinces in the west and southwest of the West African country.
“Given the persistence of the epidemic… in parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone,” Conde and Koroma decided “to extend the reinforced emergency measures in their countries until June 30, 2015”, the Guinean presidency said.
