The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surpassed 2,500, with the spread continuing.

Local time on the 21st, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ministry of Communication and Media announced that as of the 19th, confirmed Ebola cases in the country stood at 5,290, an increase of 82 from the previous day.

Among them, fatalities rose by 40 from the day before to 2,516, recording a case fatality rate of 47.6%.

The number of people who have recovered to date is 1,152, while 837 are currently isolated or hospitalized.

The DRC government announced that it has begun administering the initial 2,000 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine it received.

In connection with this, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator David Gressly pointed out that the scale of the Ebola epidemic is "increasing exponentially," noting that half of the deaths since the outbreak was declared on May 15 occurred within the last 20 days, according to AFP.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention stated that it is still only detecting about 30% to 40% of actual infections, presenting an estimate that the actual number of confirmed cases may have exceeded 10,000 to 15,000.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)