The last Ebola patient in Liberia has been released, and the country is beginning its 42-day countdown to being declared completely free of the deadly virus that has rampaged through Liberia since December 2013, Al-Jazeera reports.
"I am one of the happiest human beings today on earth because it was not easy going through this situation and coming out alive," the patient, 58-year-old English teacher Beatrice Yardolo, told AP, according to the news site.
Yardolo, who was admitted on Feb. 18, was released as the World Health Organization said that Liberia—for the first time since last May—had gone about a week without reporting any new cases of Ebola, the news site notes. Still, the country has to wait at least 42 days before it can be declared Ebola-free.
Since the initial outbreak originating in West Africa in December 2013, more than 20,000 people in nine countries have been infected, and more than 9,000 have lost their lives.
Read more at Al-Jazeera.