Three new Ebola cases reported in Sierra Leone's capital

The CEO of the National Ebola Response Center (NERC), Major Pallo Conteh has described the current outbreak of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown "as a setback" but noted this is expected with the nature of such epidemics.

NERC confirmed on Wednesday of three more cases of the virus in one of the city's slum areas, Magazine Wharf in the east of the city.

The first of the three new cases was reported on June 17 after a casual laborer, Mohamed Kamara was tested positive of the Ebola virus and six other people were taken to the holding center.

The Kambia and Port Loko districts in the north of the country continue to be the other hotspots in the country.

Whilst reacting to the new outbreak in the city Pallo Conteh described it as "a setback and tough" but assured the nation that it could be managed.

He admitted that the road to achieve zero cases "will be bumpy" until the Ebola virus is finally defeated.

Pallo Conteh described "as distasteful" the report that burial teams are demanding up to 100 U.S. Dollars from bereaved families to bury their dead.

"This must stop", he noted and promised to investigate.

According to the latest NERC update, there are a little over 1000 suspected cases in quarantine homes within Kambia in the north with the highest figure of at least 600 whilst there are now ten Ebola patients admitted in a treatment center nationwide.

Figures from NERC show that there are 8 infected cases recorded for the week ending 21st June, 11 less than the week ending 14th June whilst 41 new cases have been recorded for the first three weeks in the month of June. Endi