Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in Abuja on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after a woman who had arrived from Uganda tested positive, the country’s Health Ministry said. The patient began showing symptoms on Oct. 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in the capital four days later. Health Minister Muhammad Pate said authorities were tracing 44 people identified as contacts. “We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts the individual may have had,” he said. Nigeria’s case comes as the current outbreak spreads beyond Congo. Kenya confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded nine infections. Uganda had reported Ebola cases previously but later declared itself free of the virus. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director general, Dr. Jean Kaseya, described the situation as “an extremely serious threat” and put the outbreak’s fatality rate at nearly 50%. More than 9,000 people have been infected and over 4,300 have died, according to the reported figures. Nigeria’s disease-control agency said two weeks ago it was stepping up surveillance after Ebola was detected in Kenya. Its preparedness measures include early detection, isolation, laboratory testing, contact tracing and protections for health workers. The government established an Ebola task force in June, following the outbreak in Congo that began in mid-May. Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, said when the task force was launched that Nigeria wanted to avoid a repeat of an earlier outbreak, when officials scrambled after a carrier entered the country. Nigeria recorded 20 cases during that outbreak before declaring it over after three months. The current outbreak has been described by the World Health Organization as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and could surpass the deadliest, the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak, which killed about 11,000 people. The Abuja case now tests whether Nigeria’s surveillance and contact-tracing systems can contain a new arrival before the virus spreads further.