Authorities in eastern Congo are shifting to a village-centered approach to fight the Ebola outbreak, Africa's top public health agency said Thursday, as the virus continues to spread faster than efforts to track and contain it. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak has likely not yet peaked. Since it was declared in mid-May, it has spread from three health zones to 60, with 6,250 cases, including 3,039 deaths, government data showed, mostly fueled by insecurity, displacement and intense population movements.

Compared with the outbreak of 2014 to 2016 across West Africa — the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record with more than 11,000 deaths — the current outbreak has recorded six times as many confirmed cases and five times as many deaths, the Africa CDC said.

According to a report this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are still gaps in Congo's response. One major gap is limited community-based surveillance to quickly investigate alerts to detect, track and slow the spread of the virus.

Delays in detection, reluctance to report cases and inadequate community engagement are contributing to preventable deaths. At least 63% of deaths recorded in the past week occurred outside Ebola treatment centers, Africa CDC data showed.

Authorities are now using a "village-centered approach," working with community leaders to help build trust and improve collaboration with residents, said Yap Boum, head of emergency preparedness and response at Africa CDC.

Ituri province, where the outbreak is concentrated, is also at the center of the rebel conflict in eastern Congo, complicating efforts to gain trust from residents. "Building that trust in the middle of an outbreak is quite complex," Boum said.

Quickly identifying and tracing the contacts of those who had come in contact with Ebola patients remains challenging across the six provinces affected. Although 81% of contacts have been followed up with by surveillance teams, that figure does not reflect the full reality as it only refers to the listed contacts and doesn't include those who have yet to be traced.

Africa CDC estimates that cases confirmed in the last three weeks should have generated more contacts.