Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone starts countrywide lockdown

Freetown - Sierra Leone began a three-day, countrywide lockdown on Friday, after the West African nation reported 55 new Ebola cases last week.

Sierra Leone's six million people will have to stay at home until Sunday, while health workers go from door to door to collect information on new Ebola infections and deaths.

Health workers will particularly focus on the capital, Freetown, and the country's north, Sierra Leone's epicentres of the epidemic, said Alfred Palo Conteh, head of the National Ebola Response Centre.