At least 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccine arrive in Guinea: WHO

A supply of over 11,000 Ebola vaccines have reached Conakry, the capital of Guinea, the WHO said on Tuesday.

"The cargo was transported from Senegal by government plane after bad weather caused a stop-over in Dakar. Timely vaccination will be crucial in curbing the Ebola outbreak," WHO Africa Region tweeted.

Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's Africa director, said a vaccination team has been deployed to N’Zerekore, the country's second-largest city, and is ready to rollout vaccinations soon.

Last week, the WHO said more than 100 workers are expected to be part of the Ebola response team in Guinea by the end of February.

A new Ebola virus outbreak was declared in the West African country on Feb. 14. The country has recorded eight cases, five deaths and 380 contacts of which 98% are being monitored, according to the UN health agency.

Earlier this month, authorities in DR Congo also announced the reappearance of the Ebola virus, a tropical fever that is transmitted to humans from wild animals, in the eastern part of the Central African country, more than two months after the end of the last outbreak.

First discovered in 1976, the disease caused global alarm in 2014 when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.