Liberia, Sierra Leone Take Dramatic Steps to Slow Ebola Outbreak
Soldiers Cut Off Access to Large Areas as Hospitals Are Overwhelmed With Patients
By Drew Hinshaw
WSJ.com
Aug. 7, 2014
Liberia and Sierra Leone trucked in soldiers to quarantine whole sections of their respective nations Thursday, a dramatic response to the collapse of hospitals and clinics in the most Ebola-infected zones.
In Liberia, soldiers and police at checkpoints began halting all road travel entering and leaving eight of the nation’s 15 counties, said Information Minister Lewis Brown. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had declared a state of emergency late Wednesday for the coming 90 days, saying her government “will institute extraordinary measures, including, if need be, the suspensions of certain rights and privileges.”
A similar effort was under way in Sierra Leone on Thursday, where soldiers in riot gear blocked the roads leading to the country’s two most infected districts, said Abdulai Baratay, a government spokesman. Only first responders and officials on public-health-related trips were exempt from the restrictions, he added.
“The broad plan is to keep unaffected areas unaffected,” said Mr. Brown. “We cannot do that as long as people are moving.”
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