More than 7,200 confirmed Ebola cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as sustained transmission continues in several provinces despite an overall downward trend of the epidemic, according to governmental data released Tuesday.
A government report covering the epidemiological situation as of Sunday said 7,258 confirmed cases had been recorded in seven provinces, including 3,510 deaths and 1,726 recoveries. The overall fatality rate stood at 48.4 percent. There are still 905 patients in isolation or hospitalized. The outbreak has affected 62 health zones across seven provinces -- Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, Tshopo and Sud-Ubangi. Sustained transmission continued in Ituri, North Kivu and Haut-Uele, while sporadic cases were reported in Tshopo and Bas-Uele.
The overall epidemic curve was trending downward as the peak appeared to have been reached around mid-August, said Dieudonne Mwamba Kazadi, head of the National Institute of Public Health, after a strategic coordination meeting in Kinshasa on Monday.
However, he cautioned that the decline was uneven across the country, with some provinces, particularly North Kivu, still reporting increases in cases.
Declared in May, the current outbreak has become the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in the DRC's history and the second largest globally, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.
DR Congo reports over 7,200 Ebola cases despite overall downward trend
China's first major river-to-sea canal officially opened to navigation on Wednesday, a development that will lower logistics costs for Taiwan-funded enterprises and create new opportunities for them to tap the ASEAN market, a mainland spokeswoman said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
The 134.2-km Pinglu Canal in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is expected to shorten the shipping distance between China's southwestern hinterland and ASEAN countries by 560 km, reducing logistics costs by 18 to 30 percent.
The canal is part of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a logistics network linking western China with Southeast Asia through railways, roads, waterways and ports. It adds a water connection to the corridor, linking China's inland river system with the ports and shipping routes of the Beibu Gulf.
"It is widely agreed among businesspeople from Taiwan that the Pinglu Canal will facilitate Taiwan-funded enterprises in connecting with resources in western mainland cities, effectively reduce import and export logistics costs through rail-river-sea multimodal transport, and create new opportunities for Taiwan-funded enterprises to explore the ASEAN market after an industrial chain is created, spanning raw material processing in the west, river-to-sea transshipment in Guangxi, and sales in ASEAN markets. We welcome the vast number of businesspeople and enterprises from Taiwan to share in the opportunities of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the west, take root in the mainland, and achieve a greater development," said Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, on Wednesday.
Pinglu Canal creates new opportunities for Taiwan-funded enterprises: spokeswoman
