MADRID/FREETOWN: Spain on Sunday sent a military plane to Sierra Leone to repatriate a Spanish Catholic priest working in the African country who has tested positive for the Ebola virus, the government said.

Spain’s Health Ministry said in a statement that Manuel Garcia Viejo, a member of the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios, worked in the Western city of Lunsar.

He is the second Spanish priest to be diagnosed with Ebola after Miguel Pajares, also a member of San Juan de Dios, who died last month after being brought back to Spain from Liberia.

Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to man, has killed more than 2,600 people, and infected more than 5,300, since the current outbreak was first detected in March, according to the World Health Organization.

The disease has spread to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as well as Senegal and Nigeria.

Sierra Leone wrapped up its 72-hour shutdown on Sunday, with authorities reporting that the action aimed at containing the Ebola epidemic had uncovered up to 70 dead bodies in and around the capital.

Most of the west African country’s six million people were confined to their homes for a third straight day, with only essential workers such as health professionals and security forces exempt.

Almost 30,000 volunteers have been going door-to-door to educate locals and hand out soap, in an exercise that was expected to lead to scores more patients and bodies being discovered in homes.