At least 930 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to health ministry figures reported by Al Jazeera on July 20, 2026. In just one day, 37 new deaths were recorded — one of the sharpest jumps since the outbreak was first declared on May 15, 2026.

The outbreak is the DRC's 17th Ebola epidemic. It began when several deaths in Ituri province were confirmed to be caused by the Ebola virus. Ebola is a severe illness that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids and kills a large share of those infected. As of Saturday, July 18, there were at least 2,344 confirmed cases. About 40 percent of confirmed cases have ended in death, according to ministry figures.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called this "the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record." He made a striking comparison: the last major Ebola outbreak in the DRC, which ran from 2018 to 2020, took more than 10 months to reach 2,000 confirmed cases. This one crossed that mark in just two months.

The outbreak has spread across five provinces in the DRC. It has also crossed into neighboring Uganda, though Tedros said Uganda is now close to being virus-free. Within the DRC, cases have been moving along eastern travel routes. RFI reported on July 9 that two Ebola cases were detected in Kisangani, a major city in Tshopo province.

The most worrying number Tedros pointed to: more than 80 percent of new cases are being found in people who are not on any known contact list.

To understand why that matters, it helps to know how Ebola fighters work. When someone is confirmed to have Ebola, health workers try to find every person that person has been in contact with. They put those people on a list, watch them for 21 days (the maximum time Ebola can take to show symptoms), and isolate anyone who gets sick. This is called contact tracing, and it is the main way outbreaks are stopped.

When more than 80 percent of new cases are people who were not on any list, it means health workers are missing chains of transmission. They cannot watch people they do not know about. It also makes vaccination harder, because the main vaccine strategy — giving shots to the contacts of known cases — only works if you know who those contacts are.

The speed of the outbreak is clear in the numbers. RFI, citing the DRC's Institut National de Santé Publique, reported 438 deaths on July 2. By July 6, the WHO confirmed the toll had passed 500. On July 9, it reached 600. On July 20, it stood at 930. The death toll doubled in about 18 days.

On July 15, RFI published an analysis saying the outbreak was moving faster than the response effort. Al Jazeera's reporting on July 20 supports that view, with ministry data showing cases and deaths rising together.

Another problem: healthcare workers in Ituri province, one of the hardest-hit areas, have gone on strike. They blocked the entrance to Bunia General Hospital, protesting that they have not been paid since the outbreak began more than two months ago. These workers — treatment center staff, burial teams, and contact tracers — face high risk of infection. Similar pay disputes happened during the 2018–2020 outbreak in North Kivu and disrupted care then, too.

The DRC health ministry is the main source for case and death counts. The WHO provides its own independent assessment and coordinates across borders. Sometimes the WHO's numbers lag behind the ministry's, which is normal in outbreak reporting but matters more when daily increases are this large.

The broader picture is that the tools normally used to stop Ebola are not keeping up with how fast this virus is spreading. Contact tracing needs community trust and access to affected areas. Vaccination needs known contacts. Healthcare worker strikes weaken both treatment and tracking. The 80 percent figure is not old news — it is a live signal that the response system is not seeing the full network of infections. Every missed case could start a new chain, and every chain raises the chance of the outbreak reaching new places.