At least 930 people have died in Congo’s Ebola outbreak, the country’s Ministry of Health said.

The deaths were recorded out of the 2,344 cases confirmed as of Saturday (July 18, 2026), the health ministry said overnight into Monday (July 20, 2026). Thirty-seven new deaths were recorded in the previous 24 hours in one of the highest single-day totals.

The Ebola outbreak that was declared in eastern Congo on May 15 is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. The Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak is less common than others that cause Ebola disease, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

The Trump administration on Monday (July 13, 2026) said it is blocking American citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo from travelling to the ‌U.S. on commercial flights, according to a White House official.

The order, which is being taken under a transportation authority known as Title 49, will place U.S. citizens in Congo, or those who have recently left, on a “do-not-board” list until they have spent at least 21 days in a third country, the person said. The new restrictions come amid ‌a widening Ebola outbreak, which has spread to a ⁠number of provinces within Congo. The number of confirmed Ebola cases across the country had risen to 1,926, including 702 deaths, official data showed late ‌on Sunday (July 12, 2026).

The often-fatal viral disease spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals and causes symptoms that can include high ‌fever, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.

Some two dozen Americans were set to board flights to the U.S. on Tuesday (July 14, 2026) after having ⁠travelled to Congo, according to the U.S. official, who said the State Department would support them and others affected ‌during the waiting period.

Earlier on Monday (July 13, 2026), U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed an order citing increased Ebola risks, including the spread of the virus to just hours outside of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

The U.S. Centers for Disease ‌Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday (July 10, 2026) that a U.S. citizen working for a humanitarian organisation in Congo had tested positive for the Bundibugyo Ebola virus; one ⁠American infected in Congo was admitted to Frankfurt University Hospital ⁠in Germany early on Monday (July 13, 2026), officials said. Another American, identified by the Serge Christian mission organisation ‌as Dr. Peter Stafford, had contracted Ebola and had been brought to Germany for treatment, the CDC said in May.

At least 100 people have died from Ebola less than a month after authorities declared an outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo, authorities said.

Attacks on health workers from angry residents, scepticism among some locals and armed conflict in hot spots continue to challenge efforts to stop the spread.

Also Read: On Ebola, India must stay alert, not alarmed

Out of the 550 cases of the disease confirmed as of Sunday (June 7, 2026), there have been 101 deaths and 19 recoveries, according to the latest situation report late on Monday (June 8, 2026). The number of cases, though, is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed weeks late, and response has been challenging also because the virus has no approved vaccine or treatment.

The latest Ebola disease outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which does not have an approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reopened ​the airport in the capital city of the province ⁠hit hardest by the ongoing Ebola outbreak, a government statement said, reversing a move that some residents said had cut them off from critical supplies.

The government ‌in Kinshasa announced last month that it was suspending passenger flights to Bunia, the main airport in Ituri, where ‌the first Ebola cases were confirmed. Humanitarian and medical flights continued ‌, subject ⁠to approvals. In a statement published late on Monday (June 1, 2026), ⁠Congo’s Transport Ministry said conditions were now in place “to allow a gradual and safe resumption of air transport activities” and that the airport would re-open immediately.

The Ministry said all ​passengers would have their body temperatures ‌screened before boarding and on arrival, that passengers were required to wash their hands before boarding and that any passenger with a fever would not be allowed to board.

The Africa Centres for ‌Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced the outbreak of the Bundibugyo ​strain of Ebola, Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak, on Friday (May 15, 2026) and the World Health Organization (WHO) swiftly declared it a ⁠public health emergency of international concern. The outbreak, already the third-largest on record, persisted for weeks undetected, say health officials, who are now behind the curve ‌and struggling to bring it under control.

Confirmed cases rise to 321

The decision to re-open the airport in Bunia followed a visit from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who told reporters on Monday (June 1, 2026) he saw some encouraging signs in the response, including five certified recoveries. But he also noted the need to ramp up testing and treatment ‌capacity and promote trust in health workers. There have been 321 confirmed Ebola cases including ​48 confirmed deaths, according to the latest government figures on Monday (June 1, 2026).

Ebola has reached 15 of 36 health zones ⁠in Ituri, and cases have also been reported in North and South Kivu ⁠provinces and in neighbouring Uganda.

The International Rescue Committee warned on Monday (June 1, 2026) that the outbreak was probably significantly larger and more ‌advanced than official figures suggested.

The aid agency said the virus might have been spreading for up to three months before the first ​official cases were detected in mid-May. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief voiced concern on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) about the “scale and speed” of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRO) which has killed an estimated 131 people.

The WHO has declared the surge of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever an international health emergency and will hold an emergency meeting on the crisis on Tuesday (May 19, 2026). No vaccine or therapeutic treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the latest outbreak of the disease, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half century.

With the new outbreak largely concentrated in difficult-to-access areas, few samples have been laboratory-tested and figures are based mostly on suspected cases. “We have recorded roughly 131 deaths in total and we have around 513 suspected cases,” Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said on national television early Tuesday (May 19, 2026).

“The deaths we are reporting are all the deaths we have identified in the community, without necessarily saying that they are all linked to Ebola,” he added. The previous figures from the outbreak, declared late last week in the country’s east, gave a total of 91 dead out of 350 suspected cases.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decision to declare the second-highest level of alert under international health regulations was not taken “lightly”. “I’m deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” he told the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva on Tuesday (May 19, 2026).

The outbreak’s epicentre is in northeastern Ituri province on the border with Uganda and South Sudan. As a gold-mining hub, it sees people regularly crisscrossing the region and has been plagued by clashes between local militias for years. The virus has already spread into neighbouring provinces, as well as beyond the DRC’s borders.

‘Mystical illness’

Suspected cases have been reported in the commercial hub of Butembo in neighbouring North Kivu province, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from the epidemic’s ground zero, Mr. Kamba said, without giving further details. Another case has been recorded in Goma, North Kivu’s key provincial capital currently under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 anti-governmental armed group.

“Unfortunately, the alert was slow to circulate within the community, because people thought it was a mystical illness, and so, as a result, the sick were not taken to the hospital,” Mr. Kamba said. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has declared the outbreak a continental public health emergency.

The step enables the Africa CDC, based in Ethiopia, to mobilise extra resources including emergency response teams and surveillance operations. Mr. Tedros said that 30 cases had been confirmed to be Ebola in Ituri province.

“Uganda has also informed WHO of two confirmed cases in the capital of Kampala, including one death among two individuals who travelled from DRC,” he told the annual meeting of the health agency’s decision-taking body. A U.S. citizen has tested positive for the virus following exposure related “to their work” in the DRC, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The patient is due to arrive in Germany for treatment, the German health ministry said on Tuesday (May 19, 2026). The United States has announced it was bolstering precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola, including screening air passengers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services.

It is attempting to evacuate six additional people to monitor their health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday (May 18, 2026). First identified in 1976 and believed to have originated in bats, Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.

It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. The outbreak is the 17th in the central African country of more than 100 million people. The deadliest Ebola outbreak in the DRC claimed nearly 2,300 lives out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020. The previous outbreak before the current one killed 45 people between September and December last year, the WHO said.