AKIPRESS.COM - The Democratic Republic of Congo's battle against the world's second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record is officially over, the country's health minister, Eteni Longondo, announced Thursday.

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization regional director for Africa, said the announcement was made after no new cases were reported 42 days since the last survivor tested negative for the virus.

"It wasn't easy and at times it seemed like a mission impossible," Moeti said.

Some 16,000 frontline workers battled for almost two years against the country's 10th outbreak, Moeti said.

Despite successfully deploying two separate vaccines, the outbreak claimed more than 2,200 lives, with the response continually hampered by community mistrust and violence in the country's volatile northeastern provinces.

The country now turns its attention to battling Covid-19 as well as its 11th Ebola outbreak, already underway in Mbandaka, in the country's western Equateur Province.

Moeti said there are many lessons that have been learned from overcoming Ebola that can be used in the fight against Covid-19.