Liberia has discharged its last confirmed Ebola patient, as it reported for the first time in nine months it had gone a full week without any new infections.
Beatrice Yordoldo left the Chinese-built Ebola treatment unit (ETU) in the Paynesville suburb of the capital Monrovia on Thursday to cheers from healthcare workers, government officials and aid workers.
"Today I am very grateful to the almighty God and the Chinese ETU, and all of the Liberian nurses that are working with them. I did not know I could make it," said Yordoldo, who was confirmed by government officials as the country's last case in treatment.
Almost 24,000 people have been infected with the virus since December 2013, all but a handful in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and 9,807 of them have died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Of those, 9,249 cases including 4,117 deaths were registered in Liberia, which six months ago was reporting more than 300 new cases each week.
The country "reported no new confirmed cases" during the week to March 1, the WHO said in a report on Wednesday, adding that it was first time there had been no new confirmed cases since May 26, 2014.
