FEETOWN – The outbreak deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has forced some foreign firms to evacuate some of their non-essential staff and imposed travel restrictions on them.
Sierra Leone last month recorded five deaths from Ebola, which has killed more than 185 people in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia since March.
Osman Lahai, spokesman of London Mining firm, said that some of their non-essential staff members left Sierra Leone at the weekend and those abroad on holiday had been advised not to return for now.
He said the company had also restricted non-essential travel and all such travels are approved by the management.
Another British iron ore in Sierra Leone said it had also introduced travel restrictions on workers but operations were otherwise unaffected.
Both firms said they had put in place systems to screen the body temperatures of people working on their sites.
Theo Nicol, Sierra Leone’s Deputy Information Minister, said the government was doing everything it could to fight the disease.
He said the outbreak began earlier this year in Guinea’s remote southeast, spreading later to Guinea’s capital, Conakryy, and into neighbouring Liberia.
Nichol said that until last month, suspected cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone had tested negative.
He said the confirmed cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone had all been located close to the border with Guinea’s Gueckedou prefecture, near the epicentre of the regional outbreak. (Reuters/NAN
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