An empty local market area is seen, as Sierra Leone government enforces a three day lock-down on movement of all people in a attempt to fight the Ebola virus, in Freetown, Sierra Leone
SIERRA LEONE BEGINS 3-DAY EBOLA LOCKDOWN
BY CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone confined its 6 million people to their homes Friday for the next three days as the Ebola-ravaged West African country began what was believed to be the most sweeping lockdown against disease since the Middle Ages.
In a desperate effort to bring the outbreak under control, thousands of health care workers began going house to house in crowded urban neighborhoods and remote villages, hoping to find and isolate infected people.
President Ernest Bai Koroma urged his countrymen to cooperate.
“The survival and dignity of each and every Sierra Leonean is at stake,” he said Thursday night in an address to the nation.
Health officials said they planned to urge the sick to leave their homes and seek treatment. There was no immediate word on whether people would be forcibly removed, though authorities warned that anyone on the streets during the lockdown without an emergency pass would be subject to arrest.
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