A fresh outbreak of the Ebola virus disease was declared on Monday by Congolese Minister of Health Eteni Longondo in the city of Mbandaka, in Equateur province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

"The samples taken in Mbandaka and sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa were positive," said the health minister during a press conference in Kinshasa.

According to Eteni Longondo, the heads of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa confirmed on Monday the result of the test taken from the patients on the spot in the town of Mbandaka.

A few days ago, the authorities of the city of Mbandaka in Equator province alerted at least four cases of suspicious deaths in the same health zone of Mbandaka.

For health authorities in Kinshasa, the Ebola response team is already in place at the provincial level and another team will be deployed from Kinshasa to strengthen the response.

The announcement comes as health authorities started a countdown to declare the end of the tenth Ebola epidemic that has plagued the east part of the country since 2018, which has left more than three thousand people contaminated and 2,280 people dead.

According to WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has confirmed six cases, including four already dead by his Twitter account, WHO already has its teams on scene to support the fight against the epidemic.

The tenth epidemic has been the deadliest in the history of the country since the discovery of the first Ebola epidemic around 1977 in the province of Bandundu.

The government was planning to announce the country Ebola free on June 25, but with new cases resurfacing, the country has to continue fighting it, media reports said.

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