The start of a vaccination campaign against Ebola in southeastern Guinea has been delayed by a day after the vaccines did not arrive in the country on Sunday due to bad weather, health authorities said.
The start of inoculations in the Nzérékoré region, where an outbreak of the deadly virus was declared last weekend, is now expected on Tuesday, rather than on Monday, the National Agency of Health Safety (ANSS) said on Facebook.
A flight carrying the 11,000 vaccine doses was due to arrive on Sunday from Europe, but was unable to land in the capital Conakry, which like much of coastal West Africa is experiencing heavy dust brought by winds from the Sahara Desert.
ANSS said the vaccines would now arrive in Conakry on Monday.
Guinea has recorded four confirmed and four probable cases, including five deaths, in the first resurgence of Ebola since the 2013-2016 outbreak that killed 11 300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In this video below, Health Ministry in Guinea says at least four people have died of Ebola:
Meanwhile on Friday Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed two new cases of Ebola, including one far from the centre of the outbreak, provincial Health Minister Eugene Nzanzu Salita said.
The cases were found in Katwa and in Manguredjipa, which is about 150 km west of the city of Butembo, where all the previous cases have been clustered.
One of the new cases was a known contact of another patient, but investigations are under way for the second to know how he might have been infected, said Salita.
Congo has now confirmed a total of six Ebola cases and two deaths since it declared a resurgence of the disease on February 7.
