The ministry of health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has confirmed a new Ebola case, which it said was related to an earlier outbreak, in the city of Beni in the country’s east.

According to the ministry, testing by a lab at the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Goma determined the case was the Ebola Zaire strain and was genetically connected to the country’s 10th outbreak, which occurred in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu from 2018 to 2020 and claimed more than 2,000 lives.

The sample from a 46-year-old woman who died on August 15 in Beni city, North Kivu province, “tested positive” for Ebola, DR Congo’s health ministry said in a statement published late Monday.

The ministry however reassured the public that officials were “hard at work on the ground” to respond to the situation.

Around 160 people have been identified as contact cases, the statement added.

Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever. The disease was named after a river in Zaire, as the country was known when it was discovered.

Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.