MONROVIA, Liberia — Soldiers clamped down on people trying to travel to Liberia's capital Thursday from rural areas hard-hit by the Ebola virus hours after the president declared a national state of emergency.
Reports have emerged of families hiding sick relatives at home and of abandoned bodies being left in the streets.
Similar efforts were under way in eastern areas of neighboring Sierra Leone after officials there launched "Operation Octopus" to try to keep those sick with Ebola in isolation. While the outbreak has now reached four countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone account for more than 60 percent of the deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The outbreak that emerged in March has claimed at least 932 lives.
In announcing the 90-day state of emergency, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the worst recorded Ebola outbreak in history requires "extraordinary measures for the very survival of our state and for the protection of the lives of our people."
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more.
