Nearly 1,000 people in Sierra Leone have been put under
quarantine following the death of a 67-year-old woman who
tested positive for Ebola.
It comes five days into a six-week countdown for the
country to be officially declared Ebola-free.
The quarantine will last for three weeks, provided no new
cases are recorded.
More than 11,000 people have died since the start of the
Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
BBC Africa Live: News updates
The BBC's Umaru Fofana in the capital, Freetown, says the
authorities had been optimistic after a long period without
any new Ebola cases and this caught them off-guard.
Our correspondent says the quarantine is stricter than
previous ones. It includes a curfew in which people will not
be allowed to move from one house to another.
Soldiers and police have been deployed to keep the
quarantine in Sellakaffta, a village in Kambia on the
northern border with Guinea.
The World Health Organization and Sierra Leone's health
ministry are planning a vaccination programme for those
who could have come into contact with the woman.
Guinea is still trying to contain its outbreak while the WHO
announced that the Ebola virus had stopped spreading in
Liberia for a second time on Thursday.
It had been declared free of Ebola transmission in May but
then more cases were found the following month.
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