The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing a sweeping overhaul of its response to the country’s largest Ebola outbreak as the number of new cases continues to spike.

The government plans to provide free healthcare in its Ebola-affected eastern provinces, test experimental vaccines against the Bundibugyo strain of the virus and shift to a village-led response model to contain the spread of the disease, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Thursday.

The measures were agreed at a meeting chaired by President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, after a joint mission this week by the World Health Organization and Africa CDC to Uganda and eastern Congo. The two agencies concluded that the response by the authorities required a fundamental reset.

Congo has recorded almost 4,000 confirmed Ebola cases and more than 1,800 deaths since the Bundibugyo outbreak was declared in May.

Officials said transmission remains intense, with about 17,000 contacts currently being monitored — far below the roughly 160,000 they estimate should be under surveillance given the scale of the outbreak.

Africa CDC said it is shifting from traditional contact tracing to active door-to-door case finding in the hardest-hit areas, with plans to deploy as many as 25,000 to 30,000 community health workers.

Insecurity, population displacement and delayed detection have exacerbated the disease’s spread, with many infections occurring in communities before patients reach care, often during funerals and unsafe burials.

The six-month plan will provide free healthcare in Ituri and North Kivu provinces across public, private and faith-based facilities participating in the initiative. Africa CDC and the WHO said the program will include essential medicines, protective equipment and operational funding, while prioritizing timely payment of salaries and risk allowances for frontline health workers.

The health authorities also agreed to accelerate research into vaccines and treatments for the Bundibugyo virus — a rare Ebola strain for which there’s no licensed vaccine.

Candidate shots will be evaluated, including studies of whether Merck & Co.’s Ervebo vaccine — approved against the Zaire strain of Ebola — can provide cross-protective immunity. Clinical evaluation of remdesivir, alone and in combination with the monoclonal antibody MBP134, will also be expanded.

The strategy marks an operational shift toward a village-centered response, with traditional and religious leaders, community health workers, women’s and youth groups and Ebola survivors taking a central role in identifying suspected cases, tracing contacts, promoting safe burials and encouraging people to seek treatment early. The plan also calls for operational and financial support to flow directly to communities.

“We went there to listen,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya told reporters in a briefing. “The critical message I got from them was: ‘We are not involved and we want to be involved.’”

Kaseya said the response would now focus on all 6,542 villages in the affected area, with communities choosing the people they trust to lead awareness campaigns, encourage testing and isolation, and implement safe burials.

“They will make the choice,” he said.

The overhaul comes as international support for the response grows.

Officials said donors have mobilized about $472 million for the outbreak, while the U.S. has pledged a further $242 million for Ebola response, regional preparedness and humanitarian assistance, taking the total to more than $700 million.

“Money is not an issue today,” Kaseya said. “The issue is we’re not listening.”

The measures will take effect immediately, while the government, WHO and Africa CDC are working on a detailed implementation plan ahead of a progress review in October.

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