Ebola Travel Bans Still Cover Uganda and South Sudan

Canada has extended its Ebola travel restrictions through 28 September 2026 for residents of the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. Uganda’s Bundibugyo outbreak ended on 27 August after 20 confirmed cases. South Sudan has reported none. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the virus is still spreading, WHO counted 6,757 confirmed cases and 3,267 deaths as of 7 September.

The May rules were written as if those three countries posed the same risk. Two of them no longer do, and the third is now the site of the largest Ebola outbreak the Congo has ever recorded. WHO still rates the global risk as low and still tells governments not to restrict travel or trade.

Canada Still Lists Uganda and South Sudan

On 28 August, the Public Health Agency of Canada extended the temporary border measures for another 30 days, to 23:59:59 Eastern Time on 28 September 2026. The statement still names the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan together. Foreign nationals who listed one of those countries as last residence still cannot use a previously approved visa, permit or electronic travel authorization to fly in.

Anyone who has been in those areas in the previous 21 days and arrives without symptoms still faces a health check and a 21-day quarantine. People with symptoms go to a medical facility. Foreign nationals who have been in the DRC in the past 21 days remain barred from boarding a direct or indirect flight to Canada under an Interim Order made under the Aeronautics Act.

The same statement says there are no Ebola cases in Canada and that the risk to people in Canada remains low. It also “welcomes the effective screening and control efforts in Uganda and South Sudan to date.” Those sentences sit beside a list that still treats both countries as high or very high risk. Ottawa says it has put $8 million into the international response since the outbreak was declared.

When governments rolled out the May entry bans across three continents, WHO had already called the global risk low. Canada kept the architecture anyway, then rolled it forward on 28 August, the day after WHO and Africa CDC welcomed the end of Uganda’s outbreak.

6,757 Confirmed Cases Across 61 Health Zones

WHO’s Disease Outbreak News dated 10 September, using data as of 7 September, puts the DRC at 6,757 confirmed cases and 3,267 deaths. The crude case fatality ratio is 48.3%. Confirmed cases have been found in 61 health zones across six of the country’s 26 provinces: Bas-Uélé, Haut-Uélé, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo. Kayna, in North Kivu, was the newest zone on that list.

THE DRC COUNT ON 7 SEPTEMBER

• Confirmed cases: 6,757 in the DRC, part of 6,778 worldwide when Uganda’s 20 and France’s one imported case are included.
• Deaths: 3,267 in the DRC and 3,269 in total, including two in Uganda.
• Recoveries: 1,611 people, including 1,590 in the DRC, 18 in Uganda, two treated in Germany and one in France.
• New cases: 71 confirmed in the preceding 24 hours from 17 health zones in Ituri, North Kivu and Haut-Uélé.

Ituri remains the centre of the outbreak, with 5,406 of the 6,757 confirmed cases. North Kivu has 1,066 confirmed cases and one of the highest fatality ratios in this epidemic, at 65.4%. South Kivu has reported no new confirmed cases since 29 May. Two patients diagnosed in the DRC were later treated in Germany. As of 7 September, teams were following 21,359 of 24,719 contacts listed for monitoring.

WHO describes this as the second documented Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the DRC, after 2012, and the largest Ebola disease outbreak ever recorded in the country, irrespective of species. Historical case fatality ratios for Bundibugyo were 30% in the 2007 Uganda outbreak and 50% in the 2012 DRC outbreak. There is still no approved vaccine or specific treatment. SAGE has said evidence is not sufficient to use Ervebo, the licensed Zaire ebolavirus vaccine, as a routine Bundibugyo shot. WHO recommends it only inside a research protocol. As of 6 September, 2,007 people had been vaccinated that way across six health zones. A treatment trial known as PARTNERS had enrolled more than 300 confirmed patients in Ituri.

The virus is moving through a war. WHO notes more than 26 million people facing acute food insecurity and about one million internally displaced people in Ituri alone. Informal border crossings keep running even where official posts screen travellers. That is the setting the May air bans never reached.

Uganda’s Outbreak Ended After 42 Quiet Days

Uganda declared its outbreak on 15 May 2026, the same day Kinshasa declared. It logged 20 confirmed Bundibugyo cases: 15 imported from the DRC and five acquired locally among contacts and health workers tied to those imports. Eighteen people recovered and two died. More than 800 contacts were identified and monitored.

The last patient, an imported case, was discharged on 16 July. Uganda announced that local transmission had been interrupted on 28 July, after 42 days without a new locally acquired case. WHO and Africa CDC then welcomed the end of the outbreak on 27 August, after 42 consecutive days without a new confirmed case.

UGANDA’S 42-DAY CLOCK

1. May 15, 2026: Uganda declares a Bundibugyo outbreak the same day as the DRC.
2. July 16, 2026: The last patient, an imported case, is discharged from care.
3. July 28, 2026: Kampala announces that local transmission has been interrupted.
4. August 27, 2026: WHO and Africa CDC welcome the end of the outbreak after 42 days with no new confirmed case.

The 42-day mark is twice the upper end of the incubation period, which WHO puts at two to 21 days. Bundibugyo spreads through close contact with the blood or fluids of a sick or dead person, and through contaminated objects. People are not infectious before symptoms start. That is why contact tracing, isolation and safe burials stop chains, and why a quiet 42-day stretch is the test that an outbreak has ended.

Uganda has demonstrated that with decisive action, Ebola outbreaks can be brought under control quickly. With a focus on preparedness, increased surveillance to find potential cases in health facilities and communities, and careful management of points of entry, countries can keep people and goods moving while ensuring people stay safe, or receive care if they are sick.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, on the Uganda outbreak

In June, while cases were still being found, Uganda’s health ministry permanent secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, asked countries that had imposed travel restrictions on Uganda to reconsider. Tedros, at the same meetings, said travel restrictions are not helpful in controlling Ebola outbreaks and can slow the movement of staff and supplies. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, called Uganda’s result a lesson for the continent and said the region would only be secure when transmission stopped in the DRC as well.

Why South Sudan Is Still on the Ban List

South Sudan has not recorded a confirmed Bundibugyo case. In late June the Ministry of Health and WHO’s office in Juba said so in public, and WHO’s later outbreak notices have not added South Sudan to the list of countries with confirmed patients. Canada and the United States still write it onto the same line as the DRC.

The original logic was geography. South Sudan shares a long, busy land border with the north-east of the DRC, and WHO still rates the risk for countries that share land borders with the Congo as high. The risk at global level is still low. That gap is the whole argument against a remote entry ban: a neighbour needs surveillance at crossing points, not a visa freeze in Ottawa or a boarding block in Atlanta.

South Sudan’s health officials have asked countries that imposed travel limits to lift them. The Canadian extension on 28 August kept South Sudan inside the “high or very high risk” bucket used to suspend immigration documents. The U.S. still routes people who have been in South Sudan, and not in the DRC, through a short list of airports for extra screening, and still applies a separate entry order to certain non-citizens who were in South Sudan in the previous 21 days.

31,693 Permanent Residence Files Remain Frozen

The Canadian measures do more than stop tourists. A Canada Gazette notice published on 5 September, backing the 28 August extension, says 31,693 permanent residence applications from people outside Canada will not be finalized while the order runs. Of those files, 27,787 are in the protected persons category, the humanitarian stream that includes refugees.

THE SEPTEMBER FREEZE BY COUNTRY

Uganda accounts for 28,708 of the 31,693 paused permanent residence files. South Sudan accounts for 707. The same Gazette notice lists 1,534 already issued permanent resident documents that remain suspended for people who are still overseas, so holders cannot travel on them. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it will keep processing paperwork but will not finalize applications until the order lapses or is repealed.

The earliest known suspected death in this outbreak, according to the June Gazette record, was on 20 April 2026 in Ituri, weeks before the 15 May declaration. WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 17 May. The Canadian immigration suspension began at 23:59:59 Eastern Time on 27 May. Four months of paused refugee and family files is now the main domestic effect of a policy that still cites Uganda and South Sudan as if their outbreak maps matched the DRC’s.

Americans Cannot Board Home for 21 Days

The United States tightened past a foreign-national entry order. CDC’s page for returning travelers, updated 11 September, says people who have been in the DRC in the 21 days before departure, including U.S. citizens and nationals, will not be allowed to board commercial flights with U.S. destinations. They are told to remain outside the United States until at least 21 days after leaving the DRC, including if their plane only stopped there. CDC says no Ebola cases tied to this outbreak have been confirmed in the United States, and that the risk to the American public remains low.

Travel from Uganda or South Sudan is split by passport. U.S. citizens and nationals who were in those countries, and not in the DRC, in the previous 21 days are not barred from flying home, but their trips are rerouted for public health entry screening. Lawful permanent residents and other covered non-citizens can still fall under CDC’s order under 42 CFR 71.40 if they were in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in that window. The practical result at Entebbe is a rule that treats two people leaving the same airport as different kinds of risk.

U.S. ENTRY SCREENING AIRPORTS

• Washington Dulles (IAD): Designated for public health entry screening of eligible travelers who have been in Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL): The second designated airport for the same rerouted arrivals.
• John F. Kennedy, New York (JFK): The third designated airport; CDC’s 11 September list no longer names Houston as a screening gate for this outbreak.

At those airports, CDC staff take a short travel and symptom history, check temperature, watch for illness and enroll travelers in automated text reminders to monitor their health for 21 days after they left the affected country. People without symptoms usually continue to their destination. If Ebola is suspected, the traveler is moved to a hospital. CDC also asks people who were in the DRC to take their temperature every day during that window.

On 25 August, two days before WHO welcomed the end of Uganda’s outbreak, the U.S. Embassy in Kampala was still telling travelers denied boarding because of Ebola rules to write to a DHS help address.

🇺🇬 Attention travelers from Uganda: If you're denied boarding due to Ebola-related travel restrictions, DHS is ready to help. See below for contact info, and visit https://t.co/pFkQfM60PW…for the latest guidance. https://t.co/WnCaJfT93u

— U.S. Embassy Kampala, Uganda (@USEmbassyUganda) August 25, 2026

That notice is the policy in one line. Uganda had already gone 40 days without a new confirmed case. American citizens leaving the same country could still plan a screened flight home. Ugandan citizens remained the ones most likely to be pulled off a boarding list.

WHO Still Advises Against Closing Borders

WHO’s 7 September assessment keeps the risk very high inside the DRC, high for land neighbours, and low for the rest of Africa and the world. On the back of that assessment it repeats the advice it has given since May: it advises against any restriction of travel to, or trade with, affected countries. The Africa office put the operational version in plainer words when Uganda was declared over. WHO does not recommend suspending flights, closing borders, or denying entry to travellers from affected countries. It wants travel to continue with screening, isolation of sick people, and contact tracing.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, in a 20 May CAPSCA statement after the PHEIC, said international flights could continue safely and that countries should not close borders or impose restrictions on travel or trade. ICAO asked affected countries to use exit screening for unexplained fever, rather than remote entry bans. Confirmed cases and contacts, it said, should not take international trips unless the trip is a medical evacuation.

IHR temporary recommendations issued on 24 August pushed the same point: coordinated control, cross-border work, and surveillance, not a closed airport. Bundibugyo is not infectious before symptoms. A fever check at departure from Ituri, plus isolation of the sick, matches how the virus moves. A visa freeze for a refugee in Kampala does not.

Canada’s order is written to end at 23:59:59 Eastern Time on 28 September 2026 unless it is extended again. CDC’s traveler page, updated 11 September, still tells anyone leaving the DRC to wait 21 days before boarding a plane to the United States. The DRC count on 7 September was still rising, with 71 newly confirmed cases in a day. Uganda’s count has been 20 since July. South Sudan’s confirmed count is still zero. The lists have not caught up.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on public health travel rules and outbreak figures. It is for information only and is not medical advice, immigration advice, or a decision tool for whether you should travel, isolate, or seek care. Readers who feel ill after travel, or who need to know whether they can board a flight or enter a country, should speak with a licensed physician and with the official border, airline and public health authorities that apply to their trip. Case counts, country lists and boarding rules change as agencies update their orders, and the figures here reflect the WHO, CDC, Canadian Gazette and Public Health Agency sources cited in the piece.