Mali is free of Ebola, the country’s minister of health declared Sunday, saying that 42 days have passed since its last patient tested negative for the virus.
In the outbreak afflicting West Africa - infecting more than 21,000 people and killing more than 8,400 of them, according to the World Health Organization - Mali has recorded eight Ebola cases, six of which resulted in death.
The minister of health said in a statement that the country’s last known Ebola patient tested negative for the virus Dec. 6.
But "Mali isn’t completely devoid of risk as long as this epidemic hasn’t been conquered at our borders to the south," the statement said.