WHO scales up support to DR Congo amid Ebola outbreak

The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed hundreds of new beds and more medical staff across the five Ebola-hit provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help the country combat a fast-growing outbreak of the disease.

As of Wednesday, the DR Congo had recorded 6,342 confirmed cases and 3,072 deaths, according to an official situation report.

A total of 1,475 patients have recovered, while 770 others remain in hospitalized in isolation.

“We’ve been able to augment the number of functional bed capacities by more than 500 for the past four weeks. And this is something which has been really demanded by the current scale of the outbreak. And these almost 500 new beds have been kind of added in more than 50 health facilities across the entire five provinces, which has been affected by this outbreak,” said Dr Thierno Balde, Incident Manager of the WHO.

Balde said there are now over 1,300 beds across 49 treatment facilities in DR Congo, adding that the WHO is planning to expand the number to 3000 beds in the next two months.

“We are also trying to see how we can fill the additional gaps because our objective is to move in the next two months with 3,000 additional bed capacities. But what is also very important, WHO is really working with the different partners for increasing the number of the health professionals, the number of clinicians, doctors, and nurses who are going to work into these different health facilities,” he said.

On Friday, the DR Congo and its partners launched an updated 180-day multisectoral response plan to intensify efforts against the outbreak, with funding needs estimated at 1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

With support from the WHO, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners, the plan was intended to serve as the operational roadmap for the response over the next six months.

The current outbreak, officially declared in May, has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC to date.

Britain’s retail footfall went down 1.7 percent year on year in August, according to data jointly released on Friday by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and retail analytics company Sensormatic Solutions.

The figure registered a slower fall compared with the 2.1-percent decline in July.

Specifically, high street footfall dropped by 3.1 percent year on year in August, shopping center footfall decreased by 0.5 percent, while that for retail park rose by 1 percent, the data showed.

The cooler temperatures brought shoppers back after a scorching July to stock up on essentials and back-to-school items, BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said, noting that retail parks were the standout performers.

August delivered a modest improvement for UK retail footfall, but “it is worth remembering that this remains negative growth against last year’s already modest performance, underlining the continued pressure facing retailers,” said Andy Sumpter, head of consulting and analytics for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Sensormatic Solutions.

With retailers facing cost pressures and households watching every penny, government support on business rates and energy costs could help keep prices down, support investment and sustain jobs and communities across the country, Dickinson said.