Over 500 quarantined after Ebola case recorded in northern Sierra Leone

Over 500 people were placed under quarantine in Sierra Leone's northern district of Tonkolili following an Ebola case confirmed there over the weekend, an official has revealed.

The infection led to the quarantine of a whole village for 21 days and the village chief would face disciplinary measures for failing to alert health authorities, Sidi Yayah Tunis, head of communications at the National Ebola Response Center (NERC), told Xinhua Thursday.

It has brought a halt to 150 days of zero Ebola cases recorded in Tonkolili.

The quarantined people also include over 30 members of staff at a local hospital who took care of the patient before he later died.

After showing symptoms of the Ebola virus, the patient was first rushed to a traditional healer instead of a hospital, the official noted.

The NERC has called on the public to follow calls of health authorities as Ebola threats remain, or "one mistake Ebola will start all over again".

Three Ebola cases were recorded in the past two weeks in Sierra Leone, according to the official.